Bon Voyage!

July 31, 2018

The bags are packed and we are ready to go! We arrived at Tampa International Airport with plenty of time to spare. I supervised the unloading of the luggage from the comfort of the car. I mean, sometimes it just takes a professional to handle these things.

We checked in and then we waited...

And waited...

And waited...

And waited...

Finally, it was time to board! Once we boarded, Mommy took me out of my carrier and let me sit in her lap. The Delta stewardesses loved me of course!!! I have traveled by car, boat, bus, and train but never on an airplane. I was a little nervous about what to expect, but once we were up in the air it was no big deal.

I'm listening to the stewardess give the "safety talk." I have to be ready to assist anyone in case of an emergency!

Are we there yet?

I took a quick nap and before I knew it we were in Boston! Here we would change planes. We had enough time to have a nice meal at a restaurant. Grammy gave me some chicken - one of my favorites!

Did someone say chicken?

Waiting to board!

Soon it was time to board our plane! This time we were in for the long haul. Boston to Paris! I settled in, got comfy, and snoozed most of the way. Mommy took me on a stretch break. We took a walkie up the aisle and everyone thought I was so pretty! I even used a wee wee pad! Mommy was so proud of me!

August 1, 2018

We FINALLY arrived in Paris! We had some issues getting our rental car, but with the help of an international call to Grampy back in Florida and Mommy’s AMEX credit card, all was resolved.

Waiting on the car. Come on Mommy! Hurry up!

We hopped in our car and before we left the parking lot, we realized we weren’t going to get very far! The GPS was speaking French! Because it was all in French, Mommy couldn’t figure out how to change the language to English! Mommy can speak a tiny bit of French, but not enough to handle this! Back we went to the rental car office and asked for someone to help. Then we were FINALLY on our way. We drove from Paris to Calais. When we reached Calais we headed toward the Le Shuttle. On the way in we stopped off at the UK Pet Reception. This is the part Mommy spent months preparing for, but she was still nervous!

We walked in and saw a lady from England having problems getting her doggy in due to rabies titer shots needing updated. Another person from England didn’t have one of the dates written correctly in their dog’s paperwork. Uh oh.... Next, it was our turn. The lady behind the counter read my microchip with no problem. She asked for my paperwork and carefully looked through it. Then she looked up at Mommy and said, “All of your paperwork is in order. Would you like a one way or roundtrip train ticket?” WHEW!!! We did it!!! We bought our train tickets and put our hang tag in the window. We drove up to the terminal and right on to the train! In our car!!!

Driving into the terminal.

I love the wind in my ears!

Here we go!

Here we are! Parked INSIDE of the train!

We parked and rode the train for 30 minutes. There was barely time for a nap when we heard over the PA that we had arrived in Folkstone, England! Mommy drove the car right off of the train and we were on our way again! We had another couple of hours to drive to get to our little town of Welwyn in Hertfodshire, England. We took a couple of wrong turns and Mommy thought that was a great opportunity to stop and take pictures of pigs and sheep!

Mommy pulled over and rolled down the window. We could hear the pigs oinking!

When we finally arrived to our cottage, our phone was on the fritz! We couldn’t get in touch with our cottage owner and because the rental car snafu took a lot of time, and we did get lost a couple of times, we were several hours late getting to our cottage. Mommy saw the neighbor unloading groceries, so we asked her if she had our cottage owner’s phone number? She did not, but she did have the lock box info that held our keys! Yippee!!! The neighbor let us take a tour of her BEAUTIFUL garden and even let me have a potty break!

This is the view from my back window!

This is the view from my back deck! Those are duckies in the garden!

We made it to our destination and I was tired! I didn't wait on Mommy or Grammy. I found a comfy place on the couch and went right to bed!

Stay tuned for more travel adventures!

Luvs and Lix,

Sophia

P.S. The next day, Mommy went into town and called our cottage owner. All is well and Mommy bought a SIM card so we now have a working phone.

P.S.S. Make sure to leave a comment. Scroll all the way down to the very bottom of this post!