Me an' Luther must be among the most travelled dogs on earth, we've just notched up six countries on our European tour and are now multi lingual barkers.
What a trip it was, we've been floating on water, swimming in water and even travelled under water. Let me share the ride with you...
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| It all started with an early morning walk in my wood 🌲🌳 |
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| We then drove to Harwich to catch a ferry to The Hook of Holland for the seven hour crossing |
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| Not too much driving involved there |
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| Blimey it's like being eaten by a whale |
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| Shit I didn't expect to be put in prison, I thought we were meant to be on holiday!🔒 |
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| It wasn't' too bad in fairness, dad came down mid crossing and we had a bit of deck time |
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| We also got to see how the other half live on the upper decks |
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| AKA Holland 🇳🇱 |
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| I couldn't get over how much water there was in Holland, there were dykes everywhere - but that's another story! Our first stop was in a small village called Bergambacht where we stayed in a little cottage on a smallholding. |
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| While Bernadette was showing us around I discovered a way into the dyke and took it, soon to be followed by Luth. Mum and dad were not impressed , it meant that we woud be spending a lot of time in Holland on our leads |
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| See what I mean? |
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| Misty morning. |
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| We drove to Kinderdijk where we took boat trip along the canal to see the windmills there |
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| All very nice but I'd love a swim |
After our boat trip we went to a cafe by the side of the canal for a drink, mum was just about to sit down when she noticed Luther was having a poo and when I say poo I mean he had the runs! She quickly moved the chairs away and told dad to find something to clear it up with. He got some help from a man who worked there, whilst Luth added to his collection.
Three or four buckets full of canal water and some disinfectant later it was cleaned up, luckily we were sitting outside on a paved area!
Mum was really embarrassed and also angry with him as he had got on the side in the cottage last night and nicked all of treats that Bernadette had left, ie cheeses, biscuits, chocolate etc. You can't take him anywhere!
'Bloody Tongue' It was a hot day so after leaving Kinderdijk we found somewhere suitable to have a swim which you would think would be easy in Holland
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| Gouda - home of Dutch cheese, don't let Luther have any! 🧀 |
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| Time for a Heineken in Bergambacht |
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| An early start for part two of our trip |
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| We drove to Triberg aka Cuckoo Clock Central. Those German Autobahns are quite scary, they drive like f**k along them it's like theres no speed limit! |
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| As predicted there were shitloads of clocks to choose from and she succumbed |
I can't wait for that to get on my nerves when we get back home! 🐦🕑
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| 'Just throw the f**kin' ball!!' We had a lovely trip to Lake Constance which was more up my street as I got to go swimming |
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| Can you see the outline of mountains in the background on the right? That's Switzerland |
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Cor I've never seen a Zepplin before! They are built in Friedrichshafen
and tested over the lake, you can also take a ride in one. They used to fly across the Atlantic Ocean in them until the Hindenburg disaster in 1937 which burst into flames upon landing. They also used them to attack England in the First World War - history lesson over.
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| While we were there we decided to take a ferry across the lake to Switzerland (another country under my collar!) and drive back into Germany along the opposite shore 🇩🇪🇨🇭🇩🇪 |
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| All aboard the ferry from Friedrichshafen to Romanshorn. |
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| The good news is that me an' Luth' didn't have to go in to cells |
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| Approaching Romanshorn. |
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| We got to have another swim, same lake different country. How many of you have ever done that? |
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| You can see Germany in the background now, It's probably too far to swim - even for me! |
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| Back in Germany and on the way home we stopped off at Sigmaringen Castle. How impressive is that? I think that the photo of me an' Luth would make a great postcard 'Das Schloss der Hunde' |
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| We stayed local on our last day in Germany. just had a walk in the forest outside of the town |
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| Lot's of options |
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| It was another hilly one, we loved it! |
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| We made it to the top and got another view of Hohenzollern Castle |
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| On the way back down |
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| Want to know how to piss everyone off? Find the only water in the forest - which is basically mud, lay down in it and ignore all orders to get out! |
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| Oops he's not happy |
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| The funny side from my point of view is that they had to find somewhere for us to clean up. It works every time lol |
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| We were up and about early for a quick walk before the next leg of our trip to Italy. The daylight was just breaking through as we walked passed that parked bus, Luther noticed the pictures of the kids on the side of it and thought that they were real, so he started barking at them - he is such a Pratt at times. |
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| The route took us through Austria |
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| The Austrian border 🇦🇹 |
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| Did you know that we went swimming in every country that we visited apart from Austria? We passed through it in a couple of hours or so but we did stop here by the Lech river but it was running too fast, so we weren't allowed in |
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| There's some serious mountains around here |
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| Lunchtime just north of the Italian border |
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| Prego 🇮🇹 |
Italy wasn't in the original plan, we were due to go from Germany to France but a few weeks before we left home dad noticed that Sting and Shaggy were playing in the Arena Di Verona which is a Roman Amphitheatre, so we did a massive detour allowing them to go to the gig.
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| No not them - thats' Scooby Doo and Shaggy! |
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| These two - they've done a collaboration album and that's all we hear at the moment |
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| Yes we were! |
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| City life - we stayed in an apartment on the third floor but we never went up or down any stairs, there was a magic box that we got in and closed the doors, thirty seconds later when the doors opened up we were either upstairs or on the ground floor! |
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| Me an' Luth had a chill out in Verona it was boiling hot due to the baking winds coming up from Africa |
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| We just hung around the apartment during the day |
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| We ventured out at 5pm but it hadn't cooled down really |
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| I'd love a go in there |
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| Luckily we got a swim in the Adige, it was great to cool down for a little while |
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| Afterwards we had a walk across the Ponte di Castelvecchio and into the old city |
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| You see loads of these in Italy |
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| Checkin' out the hood at night, it's great really as you can see into other peoples apartments |
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| Our longest trip was from Verona to Charly-sur-Marne in France via Switzerland |
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| It's only just after 7am and we're crossing the border into Switzerland 🇨🇭 |
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| We had large Alpings for breakfast ⛰ |
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| After some stunning scenery we made it into France, I was a bit pissed off really as it was Luther's first time there and I can no longer boast about visiting more countries than him! |
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| A well deserved run in the woods before arriving at our final destination |
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| We stayed in a gîte (how appropriate that the french put a roof over the letter 'i') |
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| Charly-sur-Marne is in the Champagne district of France, everywhere you go there are vineyards |
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| In-between looking at vineyards there was time for one last swim, so into the Marne we jumped |
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| We had to go to the local vets for tapeworm treatment before being allowed back into the UK |
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| Les chiens sont chez le vétérinaire |
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| Cor I got a full MOT |
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| All done and ready to travel home tomorrow |
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| Blimey there's a horse buthchers in town - never seen one of those in England |
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| Our last night of the holiday and a ride to Château-Thierry |
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| On our way up to Calais |
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| We arrived at the Channel Tunnel at 1pm and checked in only to be told that me an' Luther couldn't travel until 6pm because the tapeworm tablets had to have been taken 24 hours in advance - a five hour delay. F**K! |
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| Every cloud has a silver lining lol - we went to Oye-Plage for a bonus swim 👍 |
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| Except when we walked through the dunes we found a sign that said 'Pas de Chiens'. Sacrebleu! |
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| Not to be beaten by the frogs dad drove along the coast a little way and found this little beauty - he's such a good old boy at times |
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| Fantastique |
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| After our swim we found a park near to the Calais Town hall and a picnic |
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| 4.45pm and we're checked in and good to go on the 5.50pm shuttle back to Blighty 🏴 |
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| Dinnertime under La Manche or English Channel, call it what you like |
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| A summary of our trip |
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| I'd love to do another road-trip please 🙏 |
| We finally made it home at 9pm having covered over 2300 miles in six countries. There was a lot of boot time for me an' Luth but we didn't mind at all, it's okay when you can lay-down and watch the world go by - literally 🇳🇱🇩🇪🇨🇭🇦🇹🇮🇹🇫🇷 |
See you soon
Vaarwel, Auf Wiedersehen, Adieu, Auf Wiederschauen, Arrivederci, Au revoir
Lots of love from
Rudie THE Dog xx
