ICS MEETING IN LUXEMBOURG 1998
 

In 1998 the ICS arranged the meeting in the tiny country of Luxembourg. At that time Carla and Ken Harper, Harper's Field Collies, was living there, and they were our hosts. They had found a most suitable and nice hotel in the outskirts of the Luxembourg City, where we had all our activities. From there we also had our excursions. We were there at the end of September and they had already started preparing and decorating for x.mas. Who said we are too early here?
 

The city itself is built on cliffs where the old part was based by the foot of the cliffs (natural protection from intruders), while the new modern parts was on top of the cliffs. We could stand by the city walls and look down to the old part, and it was steep down. We had a sightseeing by the minitrain from the new modern part, down through the old part and back again. It was beautiful. Some of us went on foot ledd by Carla (we needed a bank), and we saw the beautiful and pictoresque townhall and the Royal Palace.

The Palace is squeezed in at the back of a small but busy square and built in connection to the Parlament. Nothin, apart from the Cathedral was big, but I guess it s not needed in such a small country.

The conference touched upon different subjects. Mr. Johnny Bergmann, Wizard Collies, told us of the possibilities in homepages, a tool that even that late was relatively unknown to us. That tells us quite a lot abou the development in this area in such a short perspective.
Next speech was given by vet. specialist, Dr.Vet Cozemus, who told us about parasites within the dogs. We had a creepy feeling when he was talking thinking of everything that CAN stay inside our beloved dogs an cause illness and injuries. It was very interesting, and it is when you see and hear things like this you realize the importance of all the vaccinaions done and the strict regulations between countries. Fortunately, lots of the parasites presented are non-existent and rather unknown to us in Scandinavia.
Last speech was a flourishing perfomance by Mr. Ken Harper, he himself an expert of the science, as he told us about Dr. Bach's remedies and natural medicine, homeopatic remedies for both humans and animals. We received a lot of leaflets and informations on the remedies that we are a bit reluctant to trust and believe in. I'm sure there are no reasons for this as I think it made a lot of sense.
 

On one of our days off, some friends from Estonia and Scotland, visited the latesstone Collies. Only the best known were presented to have a photo of, but we saw a whole lot more. We were received with warmth and hospitality, and shown a lot of wonderful photos done by the two gentlemen running the kennel.Now as the boundaries are more open it is just great to know I have seen the collies that occurs in our pedigrees today. I've seen collies like Johnny von Dünnvalder Bush, Sanside Soul Brother and Malouine Quarterman. We also went to see the Sheltie and Collie breeder, Mr & Mrs. Wagner of Von Garnicher Eichen kennels. They had a most impressive place, wonderful dogs,and what took my heart away was two beautifully coloured blue merles.

During the weekend we attended a huge international Show, but there were not many collis attended. They were all judged by Mrs. Myrna Shiboleth, Israel. BOB of the day was a French dog named CH Love Maestro de Karlisa. Best bitch and BOS ad had her International title that day was CH.Nyitramenti Your Majesty of Snow Hills. BOB of the Smooths was Markylla's Magic Star of the Screen (dog) and BOS was Markylla's Marianne Blue Star. I also watched the BIS final. Best In Sow was a beautiful Borzoi and Runner Up was the most beautiful Irish Setter I've ever seen.
 

As Luxembourg is a very small country, we "expanded" a little and went on an excursion crossing the border to Germany and went into the Royal Emperor City of Triere. It was a wonderful city. On our way we made a stop on a winery, Bernard Mazzard where we were guided around, had some winetasting (delicious) and possibilities for buying. In theafternoon we had a riverboat from Koblenz taking us back to Luxembourg. On board we had our dinner & dance and raffle.

We sailed slowly down the Mosel Valley, well known for the tasteful wines and the lovely scenery. The small villages we passed on our way looked as if they were taken out of a fairytale film of Disney, or maybe Disney had his inspirations from these places?
 

On the last day of our stay, we were invited to visit the Boefferding Brewery. They had made a museum of the oldest way in producing beer, and walking through history we ended up in the modern producingmethods. Having been guided through, we ended up in the brewery's VIP pub for some tasting and a bite. When we went, we were presented a small 6pack of beer as a gift. Very good stuff I can tell you. Well, we are a happy crowd travelling together, but it was quite a cheerful crowd returning for our farewell dinner. Another super week had passed far too quickly and there were lots of sad goodbyes. But having returned safely back home, these are wonderful memories and gives space for looking forward to the next meeting. For me it should be 10 years before I attended again.
Participants this year came from Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Estonia, Germany, Scotland, Ireland, England and Hungary. Wow,what a crowd!
 

In 1999 Ics had their meetingin Germany, in 2000 in Israel. Since then they have been to Ireland, Scotland, USA and Portugal. In 2009 the meeting will be held in Sydney, Australia,and unfortunately I'm not able to attend. That is why I so much am looking forward to Denmark 2010 in conjunction to the World Show.