This last week has saw me taking my annual holiday to Antwerp for LeatherPride and also Mr Puppy Europe 2019. This time, though, it was coupled with a holiday in Amsterdam afterwards. Additionally (and surprisingly) for the end of February, we had really good weather too.
We flew out to Amsterdam on the Friday morning, and unfortunately (unlike the rest of the trip) I had to travel domestically… but I did discover that Bacon and Maple Syrup pancakes are quite pleasant! After an uneventful train trip down to Antwerp, we proceeded to our accommodation for the weekend, which turned out to be quite a nice apartment rather than a hotel as usual.
We repacked our stuff and I got changed into pup, so that it was easier to travel down to Darklands for the Mr Puppy Event. Whilst waiting in the queue to enter the event, a boat came up alongside the dockyard, and it happened to have a Dalmatian on-board … who merrily and happily barked at us pups in the queue *waggles*. It was a pleasant evening looking around briefly and catching up with friends and learning the layout of the venue, even if I didn’t necessarily recognise everyone I met! *paws over eyes*
Saturday saw some lovely weather so between my owner and Pup Snap, I was involved in a couple of photoshoots outside…
The photos above are from my owner, and the photos from PupSnap will appear later – as they were taken with the other Mr Puppy UKs… though here’s a ‘behind the scenes shot’:
Saturday afternoon I was involved with all the other title holders that were at the event with a group visit to the stage during a presentation., and there was a good amount of puppy title-holders on-site!!!!! *waggles*
The main part of the weekend was on Sunday; when the Mr Puppy Europe contest was publicly happening (Saturday had the interview rounds) – and I was also involved in something else…
Sunday had me involved as ‘naughty Spot’ on stage delivering notes during the presentation of the X Awards with Oakleigh, getting to have fun and be mischievous with Ripper Moff and Jürgen, the host.
The X-Awards was presented in 2 halves, and so in the ‘interval’ between them, it seemed a shame not to take advantage of the nice weather outside….
Naughty pup, trying to look cute! 
The last part of the X-Awards presentation, they invited EVERY title-holder in the building onto the stage … so I made a stupendously quick change!!! (to be honest, I never managed to properly change, I just did what I could in the time frame available!!) – this last award was a special award! so here’s how many titleholders were onsite on the Sunday afternoon:
The culmination of events on the Sunday was the awarding of Mr Puppy Europe 2019 to the winning pup, and that was Buumi from the UK, after his moving presentation with Tooklin for his #LendAPaw campaign which I’ll be happy to support.
After the competition, we all headed out for a group dinner at a fantastic local Italian that can quite easily cope with 20+ pups and handlers descending on it (OK… I did give them advance notice *wags*) for an enjoyable evening.
On the Monday, my owner and I travelled back to Amsterdam for a holiday – with a nice hotel with on site Sauna and Spa facility. This journey was definitely conducted as Spot (although without the hood on). And on arrival – after puppy has checked the hotel room – we went to make use of the onsite spa facilities and enjoy a nice dinner.
Tuesday saw pup go on tour… dressed in the Zentai and with other bits and pieces in the bag, we set out early afternoon for an afternoon and evening in the city.
After visiting a few fetish shops, we decided it was time to do something touristy so we went to take a canal boat tour of Amsterdam. However, the first boat we attempted to go on refused us because “they don’t accept stag parties”, so we went to a different tour boat company. This was a lucky decision as the staff of the company and the crew of the boat were fantastic. Through this, we also found an advertised tour of the Red Light District that evening.
Although we wandered through the Red Light District on previous visits to Amsterdam, we hadn’t done a conducted tour of it… and apart from a bit of confusion at the beginning (there were three separate people with Red Umbrellas and neither of them had any indication they were our tour) we enjoyed a fantastic time with our tour guide – who was also providing information extra on the tour and who I enjoyed a conversation with on all things puppy too. Unfortunately after the tour it was starting to get a bit chilly so we headed off back to the hotel for the night.
Wednesday saw another gorgeous day, so again we headed out in the afternoon with the intention of going to do a couple more shops (including Mister B in their new location) and also having a chance to take puppy out on tour.
This saw us taking a visit up the A’Dam Tower, enjoying superb views of the city in the lovely weather. Of course, puppy couldn’t exist visiting too!
We also managed to take some time to #PupAllTheStations too at a couple of train stations as we went around.
Thursday was our last day, and the weather was definitely not as nice, so we didn’t have as much chance to do things outdoors. After leaving the bags in secure lockers at the station – it was decided to fill the time with a different Canal Boat tour, which took a different route.
One of the things that I think I realised is that to see all of Amsterdam, you need to do lots of tours!
Pup did manage to travel all the way home as puppy though; so after picking up the bags, saying goodbye to Amsterdam…
… getting the train to Schiphol, with a quick couple of photos outside by the big “I AMsterdam” sign …
… it was time to head into the airport …
… fairly soon after it was time to head to check-in and security were very complimentary about me as a pup *waggles* … and it was time to board the plane and head home …
Sadly #pupontour had to eventually come to an end 🙁 *whimpers*