Getting Fiesta into Scotland (4)

Hi,  Happy to see you again,

When we last visited we were thinking about how to get our little dog Fiesta

Fiesta

into Scotland.  The issue is that you can’t take a dog into the United Kingdom by plane unless it travels cargo.  That means that the dog has to travel below, in the hold of the plane.  Now I know that the cargo areas for pets have been much improved over the years.  They are climate and pressure controlled, but that was still not an option for us.  As I explained before, Fiesta is a five pound, four ounce lap pet.  She is scared of everything. She would shake herself into a heart attack or worse.

So, like everyone else these days, I got onto Google to find an alternative.  It seems like the dogs can come by boat, or even by car.  Since they haven’t finished the bridge, that would mean using the Chunnel.  Two things about that:

1)  We won’t have a car; and

2) I’m not going in the Chunnel!    

The thought of all that water over my head just makes that a big fat NO.

That leaves the boat.  There are ferries from France, Belgium, Spain, Ireland and from The Netherlands.  Some allow pets and some do not.  I finally figured out that they ones that do not allow pets arrive in the UK in some port that does not have an animal control point of entry.  It looked to me like the shortest ferry is from France, but the easiest is from The Netherlands.

Anne and I have experience arriving into Schiphol airport in Amsterdam and into Paris.  By far, the easiest and most pleasant airport experience is Amsterdam.  Once that decision was made, we set out to book the ferry.

There is a train right from Schiphol airport that goes to the port in Hook of Holland (Rotterdam).  Then the ferry goes overnight to Harwich, England.  We have booked the required cabin for the overnight trip. Fiesta will have to stay in her kennel in the pet area.

Oh, I almost forgot.  In order to get from the airport to the ferry to England, we have to stay an extra day in Amsterdam.  So we have to take Fiesta to the vet in Amsterdam to get a worming pill.  There is always something.   We just have our fingers crossed that we have everything covered.

Please come back.  Leave me a comment and let me know how we are doing so far.  Also, if any of you have done this, we all want to hear from you.

Bye for now,

Linda