Tuesday evening, August 23, 2005

Twas the Night Before the Aachen

It was a busy day Tuesday for self appointed tour guides Mary and JJ, with a trip to the airport, some grocery shopping, and retrieving our Aachen resident and interpreter Marion Heinricksen. As our jet lagged guests began to arrive, we held an impromptu wine and cheese party in our “suite”. Then it was off to Valkenberg for dinner to get our road weary Americans in the euro mood.

The rains which had been coming down all day subsided as we walked into the village where we had our choice of a selection of restaurants, without the usual crowds driven away by the weather. Valkenberg is always a hit, and just a short drive from Heerlen. Shown here at dinner are Photo 1 - Margaret Heroy, Mary Phelps, JJ. Hathaway, John Zopatti, Marion Heinrichsen, Barbara Marks. Photo 2 – Barbara Putnam, Maggie McGuire, Bent Jensen, Debby Savage, Linda and Fred Stallings.

Wednesday, some will be joining us on our Cathedral Tour and lunch of the city of Aachen, while the more hard corps dressage people will be off first thing in the morning to watch the Prix St. George. Astrid Appels will be checking into DressageDaily with a report on the class, and then the Grand Prix begins. Last to go in the draw on Thursday is America’s new international super star Leslie Morse and Kingston. Fresh off her big win at Hagen, Morse told our intern Margaret Heroy she is ready for action and excited so many Americans have come to root for our team. Americans Steffan Peters and George Williams will be leading off for our team in the Dressage Nations Cup on Wednesday, so keep checking back as we begin to cover the show.

On the Scene at the 2005 CHIO Aachen