Halden -Rota- Halden 2006

Mom and dad had a real honeymoon when they drove from Halden, Norway to our home in Rota, Spain. And for that trip I was with them! I was very happy to see Rota again, my homeland. This time together with mom and dad as always suited me and our home.

I know for sure that the trip is very long, but I feel good in the car when mom is driving. (That was before dad got his license again.) I sleep most of the time, but wakeup as soon as the car slows down and I hear the “blinker”. Then I know that they are preparing to stop someplace. It is always exciting to come to a new place and read all the strange ‘telegrams’ from foreign dogs. I understand them all – since I smell the telegrams instead of reading them.
And best of all – mom and dad have Greenies (greenies.com) with them on the trip so I can get one every day there too! I always know where they are in the luggage, so I see that dad gets them to take into the hotel when we are staying overnight.

In southern Denmark where mom and dad stayed overnight before taking the ferry from Rødbyhavn to Puttgarden, Germany, I wasn’t allowed to be with them in the room, but mom and dad snuck me into the room in a bag and I slept on a rug which we had with us. However, on the return trip when we stayed at the same place, I had to sleep in the car for the night. It wasn’t so bad because it was neither too cold nor warm that night.
The other places mom and dad found hotels which allowed dogs in the rooms. They had to pay a little extra, but they did so that I would have a nice trip too.

(SLIDESHOW - To Rota)

We travelled through many countries… from Norway through Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France, and Andorra to Spain.   On the return trip we travelled a different route… from Spain through France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden to Norway. It was close to 3700 km taking the shortest route (to Spain). All together we drove about 10,000 km for the whole trip including the driving we did in Spain while we were there.

For mom and me it was a familiar trip. We had driven the same route many times before, together with Sofie and Julie. The last time we drove down together with Julie and Ida when mom sold her house in Chipiona, Spain. So now began a new chapter in mom and my life in Rota, Spain. For dad it was an experience, although it rained most of the way ‘til we got to France. But the trip up to Andorra was fantastic. Think, up there I could run through the snow again (as if I really liked that – huff – it wouldn’t be me writing this … dad made me do it!!) And dad got an eagerly awaited ice cold beer with snow in the background in Andorra.

(SLIDESHOW Andorra)

(SLIDESHOW - in Rota)

(SLIDESHOW - Chipiona)

We had many ’piss-breaks’ along the way. Mom and dad often used these opportunities to have a cup of coffee or a bite to eat, tasting the local cuisine along the way. I did not eat too much during the long drives, I waited for the good food which mom and dad brought me after they had eaten. One time dad brought me some fried eggs in an empty cigarette box. Then, mom was not completely happy when dad sat and put the eggs in the box at the dinner table! But I was really happy he did!

Mom and dad also had a cooler which plugged into the car’s cigarette lighter or regular house electricity, so they always had bread and stuff to put on it with them, and we stopped often at roadside picnic areas to eat. They did not always have coffee left in the thermos, but water is good and we always had that. By the way, now they have a portable coffee maker they bought which also uses the car’s battery, so they don’t have to stop all the time for that, they just make it in the car! It is clear that they are planning for another trip in the spring of 2007.

Now I have to tell you about when mom and dad couldn’t find a hotel vacancy on the stretch between Murcia, Spain and Bordeaux, France. They drove and drove, stopping at many places to see if there were any rooms free, but had to drive farther. They had to ask in Bordeaux about finding a place to stay. Well, they followed the signs to a Bed & Breakfast (motel) and stopped there. It was a completely self-service check-in place – dad booked the room and got the key using something like an automatic teller machine outside the door. He got a code to use and the room number on a piece of paper and up we went! Well – it had to be the world’s smallest hotel room with an even smaller ‘bathroom’, it was only 1 m2 maybe even smaller!

It was also very very warm, and mom couldn’t sleep. So she got up and opened the window which was right next to the outside neon sign and that resulted in letting in hundreds of mosquitoes. After laying in bed for about 1 hour, mom had to get dressed and go out to the car! (The hotel was a complete waste of money, and we almost got a traffic fine for running a stop sign on the way there at about 3a.m.) She waited there til dad and I showed up with the luggage and then we drove for the rest of the day. That means that mom actually drove from Murcia until we finally got to a beautiful and expensive hotel north of Rotterdam in Holland. That was many hours and many kilometers on the road. At this hotel we felt like king and queens compared to the other hotel. The bathroom alone was bigger than the combined bedroom and bath in the last place!

After a good nights rest, mom gladly showed dad the way to see one of the world’s biggest dams (not damn!), the Zuider Zee barrier dam of Holland which stretches across more than 2 miles of open water in the north sea. There we stopped and took many pictures and read about how long it took to build this marvelous structure. At the end of the dam was a set of locks used to allow ships to get in to visit Amsterdam, and dad told me that he had once passed through these same locks when he was in the navy, and visited Amsterdam in 1968.

(SLIDESHOW - Return trip to Halden)

Well, we drove from there to Denmark the next day, (where I spent the night in the car!) and later drove all the way home to Halden. When one gets near to home the urge is to get there as soon as possible!
Think – when we were still 1 km away from where we live – I recognized the area. My nose is fantastic! I stood up with my paws on the dashboard and my tail wagging like crazy when we drove up the street where we live. It was so good to get home to all the good old smells and not the least, my own bed!