Planes, Trains & Buses (and very little sleep!)
We have arrived and all is fantastic! I'm feeling rested and ready to go.
Yesterday, was one of those days that lasted forever... Oh wait! I think it did last forever! Kim just calculated that we were awake for 35 hours. Yikes!
Sunday started with another practice at McCann's and I did my best to wear Rio out before the plane ride. It was then onto the airport where we hunted down Air Canada Cargo. Who knew they could hide a big cargo bay so well!
The dogs & crates were all weighed on huge cargo scales and then all the crates were fastened securely to a cargo pallet so all the pups could travel together. When we got our bills for the dogs, we did have a good laugh, because it was as though they had a random number generator for calculating the costs! Rio & her new crate cost $300 more than Encore & Feature in their identical crates even though they all apparently weighed the same amount.
Don't worry, the girls didn't ride this way to England! (l-r Recess, Rio, Encore & Feature)
Everything else went very smoothly and the airplane ride seemed very quick with lots of good friends to chat with (it also helped that the wine was very plentiful). I made it though a grand total of 5 minutes of a movie.... So much for catching up on my movie watching!!
After 10 hours of the dogs being in crates, we finally landed at Heathrow. We had a bonus hour in the air as our plane had to be rerouted over Greenland to avoid the ash cloud. It was really cool because you could see Greenland really well.
Pallet of dogs being un-wrapped at Heathrow
Once at the airport, the waiting for news from "Animal Reception" (aka quarentine) began. We sat for several hours in the terminal eating a big English breakfast and then got restless so as a group, we decided to go on an adventure to find the animal recpetion on our own. All 20 of us, all will lots of luggage, travelled by train, bus and foot and managed to find our team bus just outside the quarentine building. Another couple of hours of sleeping on comfy couches there and our dogs were happily cleared. In total, it took close to 6 hours for the dogs to be cleared.
Our group making sure we didn't lose anyone in the mazes under Heathrow's Terminals
One exhausted Rio.... Poor girl had very red rimmed eyes but is now fully recovered
Recess & Rio on the bus and ready for a long nap.
We then had a two hour bus ride to our hotel where we all checked in and then quickly headed to a local pub for beer and good English food Even Rio, Recess, Cypher and Setna had dinner with us (the waiter brought them a big bowl of water which Rio figured she should drain and not share).
Outside the pub (don't know why I didn't take photos IN the pub....)
Our hotel has a great open path that seems to go forever and both Rio and Recess have already had several long off leash romps.
We are taking it easy this morning before heading out for a little practice at a local facility.
I'm a little behind on the photos
I will try to add them in shortly. Check out the www.aacwt.com blog for a better account of our day yesterday and some photos (Nina borrowed my memory card, so there are quite a few of Rio).
Yesterday, was one of those days that lasted forever... Oh wait! I think it did last forever! Kim just calculated that we were awake for 35 hours. Yikes!
Sunday started with another practice at McCann's and I did my best to wear Rio out before the plane ride. It was then onto the airport where we hunted down Air Canada Cargo. Who knew they could hide a big cargo bay so well!
The dogs & crates were all weighed on huge cargo scales and then all the crates were fastened securely to a cargo pallet so all the pups could travel together. When we got our bills for the dogs, we did have a good laugh, because it was as though they had a random number generator for calculating the costs! Rio & her new crate cost $300 more than Encore & Feature in their identical crates even though they all apparently weighed the same amount. Don't worry, the girls didn't ride this way to England! (l-r Recess, Rio, Encore & Feature)
Everything else went very smoothly and the airplane ride seemed very quick with lots of good friends to chat with (it also helped that the wine was very plentiful). I made it though a grand total of 5 minutes of a movie.... So much for catching up on my movie watching!!
After 10 hours of the dogs being in crates, we finally landed at Heathrow. We had a bonus hour in the air as our plane had to be rerouted over Greenland to avoid the ash cloud. It was really cool because you could see Greenland really well.
Pallet of dogs being un-wrapped at Heathrow
Once at the airport, the waiting for news from "Animal Reception" (aka quarentine) began. We sat for several hours in the terminal eating a big English breakfast and then got restless so as a group, we decided to go on an adventure to find the animal recpetion on our own. All 20 of us, all will lots of luggage, travelled by train, bus and foot and managed to find our team bus just outside the quarentine building. Another couple of hours of sleeping on comfy couches there and our dogs were happily cleared. In total, it took close to 6 hours for the dogs to be cleared.
Our group making sure we didn't lose anyone in the mazes under Heathrow's Terminals
One exhausted Rio.... Poor girl had very red rimmed eyes but is now fully recovered
Recess & Rio on the bus and ready for a long nap.
We then had a two hour bus ride to our hotel where we all checked in and then quickly headed to a local pub for beer and good English food
Even Rio, Recess, Cypher and Setna had dinner with us (the waiter brought them a big bowl of water which Rio figured she should drain and not share).Outside the pub (don't know why I didn't take photos IN the pub....)
Our hotel has a great open path that seems to go forever and both Rio and Recess have already had several long off leash romps.
We are taking it easy this morning before heading out for a little practice at a local facility.
I'm a little behind on the photos
I will try to add them in shortly. Check out the www.aacwt.com blog for a better account of our day yesterday and some photos (Nina borrowed my memory card, so there are quite a few of Rio).
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