A day of two halves

My head must have hit the pillow and I was out of the game.

 After being hangry at the restaurant, I can only say that I felt drunk with fatigue.  I needed that kip.  The Ibis Budget Hotel is basic and functional.  The room clean and warm,  the bed comfortable, the shower warm and the breakfast good.  Ideal for us weary travellers.

I had breakfast and watched the German news on tv - expecting traffic jams on the Autobahns as iut's Maundy Thursday - fantastisch!

Cleaned out the van and found that we had a stowaway - The Dancer had forgotten Lech Walesa - her soft toy who she got in Poland.  

We set off on time - and made decent time - fortunately the traffic jams failed to materialise.  A slight delay at Duisburg as we crossed the Rhine (I know a song about that Timmy) - they're building a new bridge.  Into Holland we went - our departure from  quick stop for fuel and a sandwich was delayed by a call to APHA - the Animal Plant and Health Agency.  Mum had applied on 8 April for the relevant paperwork and there had been an exchange of emails / phone calls with no issues apparent or highlighted.Anyway, eventually, they said they'd phone us back

Through Holland into Belgium - a little bit of traffic in Antwerp - 3 motorways merging into five lanes and then splitting 5 ways was always a road engineering challenge - add public holiday traffic - guess what?

Into France, it became apparent that the ministry needed a bit of reminder about us - she's not available - Ill get her to call you back.  She didn't.  Offices closing at 6 pm - so at 5.30 call placed again and matter escalated.

We arrived at the Pet Reception Centre, 4 hours before our departure time - the maximum time allowed.  The desk said that the paperwork was incomplete.  So back on the phone to the man at the ministry - Paul was particularly helpful and tried his best but sadly it was not to be.

I'll do a blog on the animals issues

We needed a Plan B

Plan B1 - Take the animals to a cattery / kennels and have them picked up / delivered to the pet reception the following day

This quickly withered on the vine - the very reason that the pets were not allowed to travel meant that no cattery / kennel would take them either.

Plan B2 - Take the animals to a 24hr vet near Lille - we would be late for our train and although we would be rebooked on the next available train - we would then have to negotiate a stay for them somewhere in the middle of the night with my 30 odd year old Higher French.

Plan C was the only realistic possibility.

The Ministry were conceding that they had not done all that they should - they could have told us not to travel with the pets but no such message or even inference meant that the pets had travelled for some 3 days from Riga to Calais.  Credit where it's due - Paul from APHA was extremely helpful and tried his best but sadly our only option was to leave the family in a hotel overnight and allow APHA to sort things in the morning.

If you've ever tried to book a hotel at 11pm for the sam enight near to the Eurotunnel terminal - you'll know that the options are limited.

I managed to find one - so with heavy hearts we deposited two adies in a hotel room less than 30 miles from the UK.  They were so grateful - but the ones close to tears were us.  To be thanked so sincerely and told 'We will never forget you and what you have done for us' and be called 'Angels' and then to have to walk away is a feeling of frustration and rage that I'll never forget.