The German Cat Show - Part Five

The Bavarian Cat Fanciers invited four U.S. judges to judge their Christmas 2008 show in Nurnberg. Henry and Eva Kellner are the nicest couple and I love to do their shows. They do a first rate job, presenting very organized and well attended shows three times a year.

The European format is quite different then we do here in the U.S. Judges must write critiques of each cat and then the show climaxes with a Best of the Best competition on the stage. I had a very lovely young lady who stewarded for me at the show. Darlyn was better at English then she thought. We were able to communicate quite well.

The four of us, Donna Madison, Ann Hoehn, Karen McInchak, and I narrowed the competition down until a beautiful torbie and white Maine Coon was chosen as Best of the Best both days.

Christmastime in Nurnberg - Part Four

We arrived in Nurnberg on Friday afternoon, we were to meet with the cat show producers and other judges for dinner that evening.

Since our hotel was in the inner part of the city where parking is almost impossible to find, especially during the Christkindlemarkt, we decided to return it to the airport and depend on club members, trains and taxis for transportation the rest of the trip.

Nurnberg is a beautiful old city, I enjoy it everytime I visit. But I especially love it during the Christmas season.

That is why I insisted Bob go along with me, and when the Bavarian Cat Fanciers invited my best friend Ann to judge as well, it made for an unforgettable adventure.

A Winter Wonderland - Part Three

After walking around Munich we took the train back to our hotel to rest. When we looked back outside, it had started to snow! We had planned to go back into Munich and eat at the Hofbrauhaus, but we were tired and didn't look forward to the cold walk. We drove to a nearby restaurant for some great Italian food.

Friday morning we were awoke to a winter wonderland, something we don't see very often in Texas. The drive to Nurnberg was beautiful, we took little side trips to take photos.

It was amazing, and breathtakingly beautiful!

Munich Memories - Part Two

On Thursday, we took the train into Munich and took a free walking tour of the city. A great way to see the sights, we highly recommend it.

Check out Sandeman's website at
http://www.newmunich.com/nm/ for information on it.


It was COLD... as you can tell by the winter wear in the photo of Bob, Ann and Charles at Marienplatz.

Luckily there were plenty of opportunities to buy mugs of hot Gluhwein, a spiced wine that sure helped warm us up.

Our Germany Adventure - Part One

After a long and uncomfortable plane ride we arrived in Frankfurt and found that our connection to Nurnberg had been cancelled. Lufthansa gave us a voucher for the train and luckily we were able to navigate the DB (German Train) system.

When we arrived in Nurnberg we had to take another train out to the airport to pickup our rental car. We had planned to drive to Munich to spend three days before returning to the cat show in Nurnberg.

It was a good thing that we had decided to make hotel reservations so the airline could send our misplaced luggage. A good reason to always pack a change of clothes in your carry-on.

We stayed in a Feldkirchen, a suburb, in a Holiday Inn Express. Very reasonable and surprisingly comfortable.

The next morning we drove to Dachau, the old Nazi concentration camp.

What an education, certainly a place to reflect on how inhumane humans can be to each other.

More Christmas Fun

I really had a good time creating the elves on JibJab. I hope everyone enjoys the video. If you didn't get to see it, give the photo on my previous post time to appear and then click on the green arrow in the center. It might take a while to load up but its worth the wait. Sometimes you may have to click once to "wake it up" and then click again to start it.

We are now busy getting ready to go on a short vacation to Germany. We love to go there and luckily our friends in the Bavarian Cat Fanciers invite me to judge often. This year they have also invited my best friend, Ann to judge too. So we will be traveling together, and taking our hubbies.

We will be going to Nuremberg, one of the best Christmas cities to visit at this time of the year. I hope to bring back lots of photos.

One of the things we waited until the last minute to do... make a will. We have always had good intentions of doing that, but kept putting it off. We finally have an appointment today to get it done.

We also ordered a phone that can be used internationally, it will allow us to receive calls from home if our family or "pet sitter" needs to reach us. We will see how it works out.