Heading for Holland, of course by car, we stoped for a while in Baarle-Nassau, for Mr. Sorin to agreed with Rony Van for a new food transport. A truck with food (25 tons) has already reached Bucharest, so people can contact me for food. Baarle- Nassau is kown on the pigeonsport map due to Ad Schaerlaekens  and Piet Manders.

Florea Sorin , John Aarts and Dinu Mihai

Florea Sorin , John Aarts and Dinu Mihai

From the sports point of view, this little town is well-known due to K1 fighter , Erol Zimmerman, made TKO by Daniel Ghita, one year ago.  As we were in Rony’s warehouse, Vincent van de Kerk (Pipa, Holland), our guide in this trip, asked us if we wanted to visit one of the best from the years 2000 , in Holland, a pigeon lover that lives i the same town…his name was John Aarts. In 5 minutes we were in front of his  electronics supermarket that was placed in front of his house. When we were introduced to John, he was very spontaneous and said something that we will never forget:” Mr. Florea, everybody heard of you in Holland, but very few of us met you personally.”

A small courtyard, with small lofts , but with doves of perfect quality. John and his wife Anja have 20 breeding pigeons and 75 flying doves, among which 75% are yearling. All the yearling participate at the fond races and marathon according to the natural method. John is a modern pigeonsport lover and of course, he is a visionary; that is why for the last few years, he has been breeding his marathon doves with great pigeons of  demifond , doves that he has from Jan Hooymans (the “Harry” line) and from Braade- Jode ( the “Home Alone” line). As there  are grumpy people everywhere in the world, not only in Romania, John assumed these stupid criticising word that we can hear here , too; that was when he started to make the crossing of  the doves. The result? National and Provincial Aces pigeons of fond marathon. Besides the marathon line that he has, that is 90% based on Antoon Ligtenberg doves ( 100% Jan Aarden doves), John buys 10 offsprings every year , from the Simmons Brothers, and thus he brings them in competitions.

Although , as we all know, the marathon doves become adults with much more difficulty, John manages to have exceptional results every year- in terms of the squabs flights. John is a modern pigeonsport fancier who does not follow the old theories of pigeonsport; on the contrary, he is always and always well-disposed to new pigeonsport things and experiences….And thus, the results of the recent years prove that he is quite right. Mr. Sorin has ordered 6 squabs from the former’s best offsprings; from these 6 squabs, two are direct offsprings of “Smart lady”. Just like the other pigeonsport fanciers to whom I paid visits, John will also send squabs to partake in the Balkanik Fair Play Loft.

Thanks John and Anja for the hospitality and for the sambuca :)