The Legacy Continues

Every End is a New Beginning.

And I have been charged with taking on the “New Beginning” – to continue Darcy’s legacy, to be the new voice for her blog. To continue to encourage other dog owners to do all the things they can do with their dogs!

For our first venture out of England in two years, in true Mum’s travel style, we took five flights, three trains and a very long taxi drive to five destinations in three countries in six days. Yes, it was doable because I am small enough to fly in-cabin on many of the European airlines. If Mum had travelled with Darcy on this trip instead of me, they would have spent most of their time in trains criss-crossing the continent.

First stop, Ibiza. It was a good time to take a break when Little Tyke was off skiing for half term – Sandra and Jessie had invited Mum to stay with them. So off we went.

To get to Ibiza, we flew with Iberia Airlines. I went in a backpack big enough for me to sit or lie down.

This was a trip that Mum would have surely taken Darcy with her – one, because unlike me, Darcy had never been to Spain. They were in fact scheduled to celebrate Mum’s birthday in Ibiza in 2020 but along came the pandemic. And 2021 was a difficult year for travelling abroad. Plans were in place for this year – but alas, life took a different turn.

We managed three nights and two days of Ibiza – ranging from campfire by a finca, to walks along the beach and visiting some rather interesting shops! We’ll write more about this adventure in another blog.

Madrid was a stopover for each of our flights in Spain. We spent lots of hours at the lounge waiting for the next flight. So comfy was Mum that we had to run through the airport when she suddenly spotted Last Call for our flight to Zurich.

It would have been disastrous if we missed that flight as we were there for the sole purpose of meeting Little Tyke. Well, that was the original plan but on the last night in Ibiza, plans changed suddenly and we needed to fetch him in St. Moritz.

We ended up seeing Zurich in the dark – we arrived late and took an early train to St. Moritz the next day. With very little time in Zurich, 12 hours to be exact, they forgot Mum’s luggage in Madrid!!!

Mum found a sweet little hotel in the Altstadt (Old Town) of Zurich – Marktgasse Hotel.

There were a few dog-friendly restaurants nearby. Mum chose Swiss Chuchi – a traditional restaurant.

There was very little sleep that night as we waited for Mum’s luggage to arrive – which was finally delivered at 1.30am. Mum thought about all the essentials that were in her luggage – my food especially.

The early morning train to St. Moritz was a pretty ride. We started to see beautiful snowscapes.

After collecting Little Tyke from St. Moritz, we turned around on the same train back to Zurich Flughafen (Airport) to fly to Paris.

A stopover in Paris was necessary as I wasn’t able to fly in cabin into the UK. We had to take Le Shuttle from Calais to Folkestone. Mum found the most appropriate Paris hotel – and it might have become a favourite whenever I am travelling with her. It’s the recently opened Monsieur George Hotel in the 8th arrondissement just off the Champs Elysee!

The only other time Little Tyke was in Paris, he was not yet one. So this time around, there were two things he wanted to see …

Of course I couldn’t go along so I happily stayed at “my hotel” …

But Paris didn’t go exactly as planned. There was another Metro strike on Friday which meant it was difficult to get around compounded by the beginning of Paris school half term which meant increased level of travel. To top it off, storm Eunice had just arrived on the continent. After a quick visit to The Louvre, we couldn’t go anywhere as the rain came down hard and gale winds blew. And there were no taxis in sight.

Even the trains were not going to Calais and we found ourselves stranded at Lille Europa – which was chockfull of passengers. Mum had to tell the Folkestone taxi driver, Mustapha who was meeting us at Calais to collect us at Lille. The roads were congested with traffic as passengers were trying to find other ways to travel, so Mustapha was delayed by two hours trying to get to us. We waited in blustery weather outside the station. It was all a bit chaotic. Thankfully, I was safely in the backpack but the wind blew through and I was shivering with cold. Mum needed to put a jumper on me.

As we arrived in Calais, it was apparent that there were a lot of people trying to cross the tunnel and it wasn’t till 23.20 before we got onto the last Shuttle. We finally arrived back on UK soil at 23.30. By then there were no more trains to London. The option was to stay the night in Folkestone or have Mustapha drive us all the way to home. There was also the possibility of no hotel rooms. Little Tyke was wiped out – and so was I.

You cannot imagine how so excited I was to be back in familiar surroundings! I loved that Mum took me with her but there’s nothing quite like home!

May’s comment: Notes from the exhausting trip.

It was a half-term trip. While Sasha went skiing in St. Moritz, we took the opportunity to visit Sandra and Jessie in Ibiza before collecting him at the end to bring him home. Ibiza was trip that I had planned with Darcy for April 2020 and then again in Summer 2021 but it never happened because it was too difficult to travel on trains through France and then a ferry to Ibiza.

Because unlike most of the other European countries, it is difficult to travel on the train to Spain. Dogs have to be in a container – Darcy is a tad too big to carry around in a bag on the train. Because George is less than 8kg, 5.85-6kg depending on which stage of a diet he’s on, I can fly with him in cabin out of the UK on quite a few European airlines. The ones where we had flown on are Swiss Air, Iberia, Alitalia, Air France, KLM, SAS … but not all of them would fly pets out of the UK and we still cannot fly into the UK in cabin. Being able to fly out cuts down significantly the amount of time required to travel abroad.

The Covid travel restrictions in each country was different. I spent hours trying to sort out requirements for each stage of travel. The most important document I needed was my Vaccination Certificate. Spain needed a Passenger Locator form that could only be filled in not more than 48 hours before departure. Same for Switzerland. France’s requirements changed the whole time – so to be on the safe side, I filled in every possible form they required. In the end, because we were travelling from one EU country to another, they never asked to see any of them. The Covid vaccine form was required for entering the Louvre and restaurants in Zurich.

We also had to schedule a vet visit for George not less than 24 hours and not more than 5 days before arrival. That was a logistical nightmare. And to enter the EU, we had to get George a Health Certificate for Animals (HCA) as the UK passport is no longer valid.

In Ibiza everyone wore a mask whenever they entered any stores. Everyone complied. Most people wore masks in Switzerland at the airport. In Paris, masks were required in the Louvre and on all public transport. I guess that makes the Uk the most relaxed in the Covid restrictions.

We had to take the Eurotunnel to cross back to the UK. And what a calamity that was!

A few things I learnt – the One World Emerald card came in very handy when flying with any of their carriers. It meant we could use their lounges during long layovers. And more importantly they took care and made sure my left behind luggage made it to me on time. But it also reminded me to be a little bit more prepared the next time I fly with check-in luggage. Except that was probably only the second time that my luggage was late.

Despite everything we got home safely and we did it! George did really well. He didn’t like the taking off and landing much. And after the second flight, he knew the drill about getting in the bag.

Though none of the flights were no longer than 2 1/2 hours, we were in transit for a couple of hours and changing terminals, etc. that it was about 10 hours before we exited an airport. I was hoping he would cock his leg and pee on a pillar in the airport as we were walking through but he’s now so brilliantly train that he would wait till he is outside of a building before he would attempt a pee.

He’s a pro when travelling on trains and he went with the flow EXCEPT for when we were driving around – his panting never stopped. That’s not totally true, when we were on the motorway, he did stop panting – until we had to start and stop again.

And since we discovered Ella&Co. freeze dried, it was super easy with his feeding.