GOING BACK TO OUR ROOTS.

Croatians in their national costumes with Moss, Sky and Pia and me at the Euro Dog Show ZAGREB June 2007

             Our Dalmatians getting their paws wet in Zadar on the Dalmatian coast.

We ventured over to Croatia with the 3 girls at the beginning of June.We though it would would be nice to take the Dogs back to their roots.It took us 2 days of travel.We left Dover  for Calaise at crack of dawn Tuesday5 th June . It was cold and we were very tired.Thankfully the ferry only took 70 minutes across.We then stopped and had a walk with the dogs which is such an important thing to do as they spend a lot of time in the car.Pia is in the cage as she is still struggling with the - “ I am Bored !!  - and we would like to have a car !!! We stopped every 2 to 3 hours.We Drove through France,Belgium,Holland,Germany and into Austria where we found a super hotel with plenty of running space for the dogs.Well there in is another story.The dogs were running free around this field jumping up and down in the tall grass loving every moment of it.Then this rather angry old man stopped his car -got out andstarted shouting at us.Well my German is rather rusty to say the least but I figured that dogs were perhaps not allowed to run free.Had to be kept on lead at all time because of the wild life.Funny but the people at the hotel never said anything and it was their private ground -- because we asked if it was OK for the dogs to run free and they said Yes !!

         Picnic with Norman and the girls                           At our hotel en rout to Croatia

From Austria we headed towards Slovenia and they were the only border crossing that asked for the dogs Pet Passport,which we duly showed them.Driving trough Slovenia reminded us abit of the Mediterranean countries.We finally entered CROATIA and caused a stir as soon as we had our first “Pit Stop”. People were so existed to see Dalmatians.We arrived late evening at our Hotel International Zagreb.We decided to take the dogs with us to our room as we felt it was much safer than leaving them in a car park.The dogs were wonderful.Not a problem at all.They were just happy to be with us.We were lucky in that the hotel had some grass land in front and a big park across the road. So we were very well exercised day and night.Every where we went people wanted to touch the dogs and have their photo’s taken.The dogs took it all in their stride.On the final day of the Show we spotted these people in Croatian National Costumes.We asked if we could take a few Photos and they were delighted.As we were standing there the Croatian TV came along and wanted photo’s, children and adults wanted photo’s with the Dalmatians and The Croats in their costumes. A photographer from UK’s Top Dog News Papers came around and took photo’s and had a chat about our trip and dog shows in Croatia - which  later appeared in Dog World .   The Chandhally Clan really went       BACK TO THEIR ROOTS..

Zagreb the capital of CROATIA

June 2007 

We had a few dog shows too.The ECDC show where the president of the Croatian Kennel Club handed out the main awards.followed by the Euro Dog Show with well over 10.000 dogs and finally the Croatian Dalmatian Clubs Show.We had fun and did well.But for that you have to vist   Chandhally news

We traveled around Croatia with our friend Norah and ventured down the Dalmatian Coast to ZADAR.We had a super time and the dogs were very welcome every where we went.We only saw 2 Dalmatians outside the shows which was very disappointing as we had thought Croatia would be one place with lots of Spotty dogs.

And we soldiered on as any good traveller does.We went to Rijoca the largest port in Croatia.Not to impressed with that and desided to drive on to the Islan KRK. A very quiet place.What was very noticable with Croatia was lack of beaches.The few that was ,was man made or full of very sharp rocks which made swimming very difficult.

We finally headed for home on the Sunday10th June after the last dog show.Traveling towards Italy this time.So again we came through Slovenia,Italy,Austria,Switzerland and finally France.

Wonderful Austria.Stunning.  Mountains are 3.400 m High and I though Norway was Stunning !!

                           THE HILLS  ARE A  LIVE  WITH  THE   SOUND   OF ----     DOGS???..

Our Hotel on our way home -Austria..Oh how we would have loved to have a dip-we didn’t have timeDid you think this was expencive? Actually it was very cheap with excellent food, wine and service We arrived out of tourist season..Great for us.The dogs wereNot anywhere near the pool though we wouldn’t have got them or us out.It was heated too.Oh bliss  Never mind they had the hills behind And the dogs loved it.

The final trip home and the hotel we stayed in in France in a town called  Belfort -   Well it was cheap..

We arrived at Calaise with plenty of time to do some shopping and for the dogs to have a very long run in the fields near the ferry..We go to check in -Dogs Passports were thoroughly checked -The check in staff said we could not get on the Ferry back to England because there were problems with the dogs pass ports.Go and see the Vet .He is 10 minutes away from the ferry !! So off we went wondering what was wrong.The dogs papers not in oreder ?? Thank goodness  the Vet in Calaise thought othervise.Said all papers and micro chipp numbers were OK and we were allowed to get on our ferry.That was one scary moment because we didn’t want to sped yet another day in France (nothing wrong with France we just wanted to get home!!) I for one how ever is glad that the documents and dogs are checked but again not very nice if you have to drive 10 minutes to find his Vet and then you know your Ferry is leaving in 30 minutes.We were very luck because we found out when we got back from the Vet that the ferry was delayed 45 min.Yippy....

               AUSTRIA                      Our entry in to ITALY but no difference to Austria   ?                        

HAVE PETS WILL TRAVEL. PET PASS PORT OPENS ALL THE DOORS. JUST MAKE SURE YOU KNOW THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COUNTRIES YOU VISIT AND MAKE SURE IT IS OK BY    DEFRA   TO TRAVEL THERE.FINALLY MAKE SURE ALL OYUR PETS DETAILS AND VACCINATIONS ARE CORRECT.PET MICRO CHIPPED.FINALLY BEFORE YOU CAN RETURN TO UK YOUR PET MUST BE WORMED AND TREATED FOR FLEAS AND TICKS 24 TO MAXIMUM 48 HOURS PRIOR TO GOING HOME.

NO MORE BOARDING KENNELS FOR US ( ONLY THE ODD ONE ) WHEN WE HAVE NO CHOICE.THE DOGS LOVE GOING WITH US AND WE LOVE HAVING THEM WITH US