August 2016 – Kate and Mike

Cruise part one

We have been traveling around Greece. We spent the first night in Athens at the Coral Hotel. We were able to watch the ClubMed 2 and the Wind Star Sail into port together.

We started in Athens.

Kate on the Back Deck

We had dinner on deck the first night and watched the sun set and sailed past the temple of Poseidon. It was very windy. Our salad was properly tossed and blown around.

Sunset

Just after Sunset

We sailed past the Temple of Poseidon. I think he was busy getting ready to release the Krakken.

The first port (Sunday) was Mykonos.

Our ship – the Windstar – in Mykonos harbor

And in Santorini

On Mykenos – we got the tender to shore and a ferry to Delos -an island near Mykonos famous for ancient ruins. Mythology says Delos is the birth place of Apollo and Artemis.

Photos of Mykonos from the ferry to Delos.

Photos of Delos

Second stop – Monday – was Santorini.

Our ship is the sail ship on the right. On

the left is a celebrity cruise ship – itself a relatively “smaller”. View from Santorini looking down into the caldera full of sea.

In Santorini the boat docks at the base of a cliff – and you can get a cable car, donkey or walk up. Most of you won’t need three guesses to work out what Mike proposed….

The donkeys – they looked well fed and healthy. But had a mind of their own when coming up or down – sometimes straight at us…

A donkey with Windstar in the background

Walking around Santorini

Views of Santorini from the ship

The houses look like White Caps on snow covered mountains.

More views of the caldera from Santorini

We are at our first house. Max is settling in. He is enjoying his view of the Keston country side just outside of London and inside the M25. This house is located on a horse farm.
View from the living room.

We had trouble getting here. We were on basically one lane roads, with pull offs to give the right of way to on coming traffic. Yes they are one pan roads with two way taffy. Everyone was doing 50 + mph. There was quite a bit of traffic too. This system works if everyone is driving perfectly and they know the road and some American that is still trying to remember to shift with his left hand and stay on the correct side of the road is Also not on the road. Needless to say I hit on tree, just my wing mirror (side mirror), and it just folded in – no damage. I also got friendly with some bushes as I realized a bit late I was supposed to yield.

We should not have taken that route. The Satnav(GPS) took us a very bad way.

The back patio view with some horses.

We are in London

We are here. Max made it through quarantine very easily within an hour of landing. We had a bit a problem with customs. The company we paid loads of extra money to carry Max through customs and take care of our customs paper work “forgot” we were coming. It wasn’t until we (that mean Kate) called did they actually start – and they were 30-40 mins away from the office to even start the process.

Max is comfortably resting in the hotel room. He seems to be getting used to this traveling thing. He is currently very happy to be out of his cage. He seems no worse for the wear. He is completely unphased. We have always been amazed at how quickly Max and his two brain cells bounce back from traumatic events.

Tomorrow we will stop at the Cattery that Max will stay at while we are in Greece, to make sure our USA paper work will be sufficient for the UK regulations. We will also have dinner with Kate brother Jonnie at a Gastro Pub in London.

We are off.

Yesterday we drove down to Newark, New Jersey. It was pretty uneventful. I sure do love those NJ drivers. We stopped at the New Jersey Welcome Center, and it was anything but welcoming. It was only open 7am – 4pm. They should take a few lessons from Moe’s on how to be more welcoming. Welcome to Moes!

We stayed at an “Extended Stay” near the airport. I all I have to say is that I am glad I will not have to stay there an extended amount of time. We went to dinner at a Caribbean Restaurant that we have tried a year or two ago – it was not as good as it was last time, but it was still nice.

Max did fine in the car ride on the way down. He was good. He was not happy about it.

Max was a little nervous about the hotel room, but he settled down. For a while he would not even eat his treats. Poor guy. Once we went to bed he settled down and eventually ended up snuggling with me for a little while we slept. He was purring the whole time. Eventually I had to disturb him because I was restless and needed to get up.

Max is not Cargo on United. We will pick up at HARC (Heathrow Animal Reception Center). He along with his paperwork will clear immigration and customs. He will be in his crate about 10 hours. They will let him out and clean up any messes he makes at HARC. We will get the car crop out luggage off at the hotel and then go pick him up at HARC.

We are getting ready to board our flight now.

Max Last Vet Appointment and off to the USDA in Albany

Max had his last visit to the vet on Wednesday to clear him for travel to the UK. Max was “injected, inspected, detected, infected, neglected and
Selected! … every single part of him, and they was leavin’ no part untouched!” to quote Arlo Guthrie’s famous thanksgiving song Alice’s Restaurant Massacree in five-part harmony. We have omitted the “twenty-seven 8 x 10 colored glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one“.

Here is the what we are referring to, if you have never heard the Alice’s Restaurant before.

Max lost a bit of his dignity when he had his temperature taken. Kate was surprised there isn’t a less invasive way to take a cat’s temperature.

Seriously – he got a clean bill of health – we got both of the different required health forms filled in by the vet and the European one has now been endorsed and sealed by the USDA, which required us to drive to Albany and back this morning. However, Max was able to stay home – the USDA vet just needed to see the paperwork. We thought the USDA needed to stamp and approve both health forms (the Appendix IV/European Health/Third country official vet form and the US Aphis 7001 form – but it turns out that the USDA no longer endorses/seals the Aphis form.

So now Max should be all set – next step is dropping him off at United Cargo at the crack of dawn Thursday morning.

Month: August 2016

Cruise part one

The house for the first week

We are in London

We are off.

Max Last Vet Appointment and off to the USDA in Albany