Thoughts on week 1.
"A year of vacation" this is not...
Travelling with the dogs has been quite a very different experience. My brain likes to build up anxiety over things, and I was extremely stressed about flying them the long distance, which they handled very easily. I figured customs was going to be challenging... it wasn't. We had some challenges with approval of the Health Certificates in Canada by the CFIA vet who is required to stamp/approve the dogs for export from Canada (she was just doing her job questioning things), and the Netherlands Customs Agents looked at the stamp on the front page and let us go. No questions, or really even any interest at all about the dogs.
We spent a few days killing our jetlag and getting some things done in Amsterdam. Within 24 hours of landing in Europe, we had a vet appointment to secure Pet Passports for the dogs. These are basically verified health certificates indicating the dogs have the appropriate microchips and rabies vaccinations in order to travel freely with us around other EU countries. We still have to carry all of their original paperwork with us in the event we are questioned by authorities, but that is probably unlikely. We also needed dog food, because no one could actually tell us what we could/couldn't bring for the dogs on the plane. We did bring a little bit with us, but it was only going to last us a day or 2, so that was a priority.
I figured the dogs were going to take a while to transition from the flight... they didn't. I figured it would be tough to get into a routine with them over here... it hasn't been. In fact, It really has been a smooth transition. I think we may have had success because we have traveled a lot with the dogs, usually on camping or extended road trips, and so we do have some routines that we just adhere to, regardless of where we are. They adjusted their food schedule pretty quickly, and while I did have a few 3am walks to get them outside, they quickly adapted to the new timezone and we've all been on a really good sleep schedule for a few days now.
And so we started travelling. Instead of spending all our time in Amsterdam, we explored some other areas. The seaside town of Zandvoort was a lovely beach community, that was absolutely packed with locals for the long weekend.
Then we made our way to the very sleepy seaside village of Zeebruge, Belgium. This is where we pick up the truck. Or... this is where the truck will be arriving 3 weeks late and well beyond our time scheduled here, and past the 2 week buffer we left for any unfortunate delays. Clearly, I didn't plan for super unfortunate delays due to lack of information provided to me, and ships not shipping out on schedule. I have a lot to say about this and will save that for it's own post when I'm a little less pissed off about the situation. In the meantime, we could rename this site to "fourbyQashqai" while we roam the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Spain in a Nissan Qashqai (which, I kind of like).
Back to Belgium... the land of beer and chocolate.
We will most likely be back in Bruges tomorrow on our way to visit friends in Ghent, Belgium.
We have successfully transitioned to cooking our own meals and avoiding the very appealing restaurants that call our name every time we are walking the dogs. I think they allow dogs in food establishments here solely to make it easier for us to decide to eat there instead of going home and cooking for ourselves. We hit up the market in Bruges yesterday, and scored Pork tenderloin, potatoes and tomatoes for 6Euros, and had a fantastic dinner at our current home. Which, of course, won't be our home tomorrow.
And the first week is almost over. At times, the entire idea of this trip seemed incredibly daunting. I'm sure we could have planned some things better. I'm sure we could have saved some money here or there. I'm sure I probably should have slept more in the last few weeks leading up to departure. But... it wouldn't be an adventure if everything went as planned., and we are looking forward to where the road takes us.
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