We recently headed over to Amsterdam. The city of tulips, canals, dykes, windmills, weed, and prostitutes. We took an overnight ferry from New Castle to the port city of Ijumuiden and then a bus into the heart of Amsterdam in the Canal district.
We took a 3-4 hour train ride over to Newcastle. Which is always pretty relaxing.
The Ferry ride over was quite pleasant. It was a fifteen hour journey. We had a simple cabin with an ensuite bathroom and shower on DFDS ferry. We were able to experience both of their ships. It was like a mini cruise almost. There was live entertainment. The restaurants and service were great. We had dinner and breakfast on board and a few cocktails. It was quite civilized way to travel. It was cheaper than flying and no hassle at the airport. In the future I would consider adding and overnight ferry again to a trip.
Windmills off the coast of the Netherlands.
The city was pretty amazing. The canals made the city feel less dense. We did not part take in any of the debauchery that goes on but we did walk through the red light district. The highlight was visiting the Van Gogh museum. Thankfully we got there before it got busy and the queue (line) spilled out the door. We were able to enjoy about half of the museum in relative peace and quiet.
The Waag – Part of the Original city wall and defense
On the way back into the UK, we were stopped for the second time entering the UK and they really put through the paces. Something that we are saying is raising a red flag. On the way back from Athens and now Amsterdam we were really put through the paces. We were not prepared for it. Seems like it would be a good idea to travel with all of my bank statement and copies of my entire journey. Both times the Border Force Agent took extensive notes as to what I was telling her. Although I was let in, it left us with an uneasy feeling. In the future I will be traveling with more documentation. We think it is combination of the duration of my stay, the fact that I am associated with UK national and have no legal status in the country. Seems as though it raises a red flag about whether I will leave or not. It might also have been an issue, that as we got off the boat in the Netherlands, they were not checking passports. They started just after me. There was no record of me leaving. Port security, Immigration and customs was pretty light compared to an airport.
The Church of Saint Nicholas (Front)Church of Saint Nicholas (Back)The Old ChurchCentral Station – The main train station in central AmsterdamTypical Canal Street. Notice the building are not quite straight.Fall day in Amsterdam.
Here are some more photos from walking around Settle. Some are early in the morning. The field with the hay bales is right in front of where my grandma used to live. That field always had sheep in it when we would visit – and when we would come up at Easter school holidays would usually have pregnant sheep and lambs in it.
This is looking down on Settle from a hill at the edge of town.
These photos are from Gordale Scar and Malham – which is about 5 miles away.
The walks in this part of the world have lots of stiles. In fact – if you come to a stile – that’s the best evidence that you are still on a footpath and haven’t got lost. They come in all sorts of designs. The most common are stone steps that jut out from the dry stone wall. Sometimes now these also have a little gate on top – which didn’t used to be the case. But read on and you may be able to guess why this has been added …
But there are also wooden styles, kissing gates, narrow spaces you have to squeeze through, ladders that go over walls or fences
There are even special equivalents (build in holes in the walls) for sheep. these are often blocked up with loose stones if the farmer wants to keep the sheep in the field in questions.
However – for the first time in my life – I saw – from a distance – two sheep go over a human stile this week.
This is the stile in question
Here is a photo from a ways away showing one of the sheep in progress. It took the first sheep a few running attempts – but the second sheep went over pretty fast.
We docked in Rhodes – and could see the old town from the ship.
Its a beautiful walled town, with the walls and several of the buildings dating back to the medieval ages when the Knights Templar ruled here.
The street of the knights
In Kalymnos – we anchored and the water platform was down. We went scuba diving with a local dive centre. Not much to see but good practise. The first dive was called “amphora” – and the sights were…
wait for it….
broken amphora.
The second dive we saw some fish and we also got to see and touch a large sponge. Kalymnos is known for sponge diving. I hadn’t realized that sponges are black. They bleach them after they harvest them.
The crew leading YMCA at the on-deck bbq in Kalymnos
Then a day at sea and I got to walk to the bowsprit. Shame I haven’t seen Titanic.
And the last port, Nafplio, had a ruined castle that you could get a bus up to or climb 999 steps…
Well – in the end we are pretty sure it was more than 999 steps.
There were lovely views down to the harbor and town though.
Two rival ships also in port. The one with the sails is the Royal Clipper and is operated by Star Clippers.
Views from the ship
There used to be a chain across this harbor – which is what this little island was for.
Sailing back to Athens
The sail-away (I can only show short movies as the full length ones are too large for this site).
Our rival sailing ship the Royal Clipper as we sail by.
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.
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.
Max relaxingI think there is something that will stroke me in that cupboard…
Max – Just looking good.
So I have learnt that there are sometimes many names for the same form…. And that taking a cat across the ocean requires a lot of planning. And probably a lot of extra luggage…
For travelling to both the UK and Hawaii from the US mainland Max has to arrive cargo. Alaskan Airlines may be able to take cats in the cabin into Hawaii – but as far as I know none of the other airlines do/can. For the UK I don’t think its allowed for any airline. Turns out Max also has to come back from both the UK and Hawaii as cargo.
We are flying United – so this has meant phoning United PetSafe to book Max to travel cargo. They have been very helpful so far. They take all the details – and book it in – but you don’t pay until you drop the cat off. We are driving down to Newark when we fly to the UK – so that we can deal with a big airport that (hopefully) will know what they are doing..
For Hawaii we will break our trip at LAX so we and Max get a break from planes and we will just check him cargo from LAX. That means we need to make sure that his crate gets to LA though…
Max enjoying the new crate
We bought Max a special travel crate. There are lots of rules for the crate – how big it has to be, it needs to have ventilation on all sides, two water containers etc. Hopefully we have followed them all. There is a nice Heathrow Animal Reception Centre (HARC) video about this
For example I had to replace all the screws and bolts that hold the crate together with metal ones. We also have twist-ties to tie the door on when we deliver him to the airline. He is not allowed any toys in the crate with him when he travels 🙁 All you can put in the crate with him is an absorbent layer at the bottom. That may be the most stressful part for Max. No humans to stroke him and no toys to play with for so many hours.
He has to be dropped off at United cargo 3-4 hours before the flight and he has to have eaten and had a drink 4 hours before the flight.
Hanging out in the crate
The crate we bough is 28” x 20.5” x 21” . From the rules I was a little worried before it arrived that it might not be large enough (you have to measure your pet in all different dimensions and ways and then do some math) – but there is loads of space for him. Having said that – it costs the same price to ship this one as the smaller one – as United uses a range of weights for each price – so I am glad he will have more space, more of an economy plus kind of crate, while he travels :). We have been getting him used to the crate by putting treats in it at regular intervals.
When are we off? and where are my treats?
Microchip
We adopted Max and he came with a microchip. We thought this was an AVID chip – but when we did some investigating recently – turns out it is a 24hr petwatch chip. It is also not ISO compliant – which I didn’t realize until recently. That caused some stress as the UK websites all say that the chip has to be ISO compliant and if it isn’t, you need to take your own chip reader with you. However – the UK pet importing service we have to use, PBS, said it was OK and the HARC website says they can read AVID chips (and ours should be readable with an AVID chip reader). I emailed HARC several times (from their website) to check this – but with no response. In the end I phoned – even though their website said not to – and got a very helpful young woman who assured me that, at Heathrow at least, they can read all sorts of microchips and ours should be fine.
For traveling with Max to the UK – enquiring from many different sources has come up with the consensus that we need
Form Appendix IV (also called third country official vet form and European Health Certificate) – this is a UK government form you can find at the link below. This has to be signed in a different color to the printing. It must also have the brand and product names for the rabies vaccines used and the lot numbers. It also needs to be sealed by the USDA
2. Rabies Vaccination Certificate – there are lots of rules about this – it needs to have the product name, manufacturer name, lot number and expiry date of the vaccine used and the validity dates for the innoculation
3. Health form Aphis 7001 – which is a US health form (I think this is needed mainly for the airline). We had been told that this also needed a USDA seal – but when we took it to the USDA they said that they no longer seal these.
Both Appendix IV and Aphis 7001 forms need to be issued within 10 days of travel and Appendix IV/European Health Certificate also needs a USDA seal. This means you need to get the form from the vet and then fedex them to a USDA office – or we are driving them up to Albany to get them stamped as the timing is so tight as we don’t want to risk them getting lost in the mail.
Because we will put Max in a cattery for a week while we are in the UK – we also need a certificate for his FVRCP vaccinations (Cat flu) – as that is a legal requirement for UK catteries.
This was all very confusing to sort out – as initially United and PBS were using different names for the same form (the appendix IV) and United told us we needed a EU passport (that you can’t get outside the EU).
We also have to pay a UK company to clear Max through customs. We we had to use the company that United contracts with at Heathrow, which is called PBS – www.pbspettravel.co.uk
When he arrives Max will be taken here (HARC) – where they will put him in a kennel and run and feed him and let him go to the Bathroom
To bring Max back to the USA there are less requirements. Again he had to be booked cargo with United petsafe – but this time – this had to be arranged with a UK company. We are using the same one that are clearing Max through customs when we arrive. We filled in some paperwork for them and paid them some money and they make the arrangements. We then need to drop Max off 4 hours before our flight at United cargo (I hope we can find this – the address is a bit ambiguous) with a letter from a Vet, written within the last 10 days saying that Max is fit to travel. Also called “Fit to Fly certificate”. This has to be signed, stamped and dated on vets official headed paper. So we will have to find Max a London vet before we come home.
For Hawaii – you really need to plan ahead – as not only are rabies vaccinations needed – but also your cat needs to have a blood test done to prove that the antibody titre is high enough. A blood sample needs to be sent to Kansas State University and the results of this need to be obtained 120 days before you can travel to Hawaii. The nice thing is that you can log on to the Hawaiian website and check that they have the blood test results – just by searching with your pet’s chip number.
Your pet needs to have had at least two rabies injections, both while they had a chip that was read, and the second injection needs to be at least 90 days before your pet goes to Hawaii. There are good guidelines on the department of agriculture website for Hawaii http://hdoa.hawaii.gov/ai/aqs/animal-quarantine-information-page/
You need original rabies vaccination certificates for the two most recent injections – and they need to be signed in ink by your vet. Copies are not allowed. You also don’t get these back. So if you have a jet-setting kitty like Max is becoming, you may need to ask your vet for several originals of these.
We are flying direct to Kona on the big island and are doing direct admission on Kona. This meant that we had to send all of the paperwork to Hawaii ahead of time – but the good thing about that is that now we have a permit to bring Max in. So all we now need for Hawaii is that permit and a health certificate issued less than 10 days before we fly. We have also had to contract with a local vet (there are two to choose from) who will come and check Max’s chip and paperwork at the airport when we arrive. We have been working with Kelly at the Kona Veterinary service and she has been really helpful and friendly.
New in cabin travel bag for Max
For internal flights within the USA with United you can book to take a pet in the cabin at the same time as you book your own flights online (there is a special box you can tick in the “Advanced search” option). United charges for this – $125 each leg of the journey. The website though is pretty cool – it knows what seats you can’t sit in if you are traveling with a cat. For example, one of the newer planes – you can only fit a cat in the space under a window seat. However the software is not clever enough at the moment to work out that if two humans are traveling with one single cat – that doesn’t mean that both humans need to have a window seat. That took a phone call to United to sort out – and it took them a long while to be able to fix it….
More new things for Max
For traveling within the US on the way to Hawaii – and maybe also traveling around the UK – we have bought a new travel bag/crate. It zips out to have two side wings – a bit like a tent. He likes sitting in this one already too (maybe because there are sometimes treats hidden in there). Looks like some toys have been carried to it as well. Max likes carrying his toys to his favorite places so this is a good sign..
fold up litter box in foreground
Max even has a new pack-up travel litter box. This looks a bit small to us – but it packs up the size of a paperback book and other people claim it works ….
So here is our itinerary. It will be updated as we make changes and fill in the gaps. Mike and Kate – Itinerary
We are staying at pet friendly hotels, motels and airb&b houses while traveling with Max.
Our plan is to drive to Newark. Love Jersey – NOT! We will rent a car in Syracuse, drive down, and spend the night. This will give Max time to have every opportunity to use the bathroom, before his trip to the UK. We have to have Max to the airport a few hours before the flight. I will drop Max and Kate off to have him checked in as cargo, while I return the car.
We will fly direct to London. No upgrade. We are sitting in the back of the bus. Max will be taken automatically through customs and immigration. We will meet him at HARC, Heathrow Animal Reception Center and Emporium. Ok, I made up the Emporium part. We are a little nervous about fitting Max, his crate, and our luggage in our rental car in the UK. Hopefully it will work out. We will spend the night at an Airport hotel. We check into an Air B&B place in the South of London, that has more greenery than buildings and concrete. We are there for a week.
While in London we plan to visit family and get settled into our travel plans and take care of anything forgotten. I plan to get a UK SIM card, and switch between my American and UK phone. I am still working out that plan. Kate’s niece has a certain affection for Max. Max even got a Christmas present from her (a snowman on a string that he loved to pieces- literally). She has imagined “Taking two airplanes to Auntie Kate’s house to play with Max.” Those were her words. We absolutely need her to meet Max for real.
After a week there, we will drop Max off at a cattery, so that we can cruise around the Greek Islands. We have a direct flight to Athens. We were able to work out a ‘free’ upgrade on Aegean Airlines in one direction. Yippie. I love upgrades. It is not that great of an upgrade, but allows some small perks like not sitting next to anyone and getting on the plane first.
We come back to London for a few days. We then will head to Settle, UK . This will be a very productive time for Kate. I plan to quite a bit of hiking and exploring of the countryside. We will stay there until it is almost time to come back home. We will spend a few days in London with Kate’s parents before we leave.
Max will need to see a vet before he flies home. He needs a health certificate stating he is healthy enough to fly. We fly back to the States on Oct 20th. We are back in town for just under 6 days. We begin our journey to Hawaii on Oct 26th.
