Triar and I had a wonderful trip to Shetland. Traveling with him is always a joy. He makes me proud and other people smile. We headed up from Settle on the train, changing at Carlisle, walking from Central to Queen Street in Glasgow, then on up to Aberdeen. The Palm Court Hotel made us very welcome and the breakfast was delicious. I think we may head up there sometime for a weekend break, but that’s a decision for another day.
The Hrossey was not due to sail until five, so we stayed in the hotel until eleven, then strolled into town. A brief shower sent me into a cafe, where for the first time ever, as I ordered my coffee, I was asked if I wanted some chicken and water for my dog. Of course I said yes. He deserved it, after all.
Once aboard the Hrossey, he quickly made himself at home.
It was something of a rough crossing, so we didn’t sleep much, but we arrived safely and on time in Lerwick on Sunday morning. Lindsay’s house, where we would be staying, is on the edge of Lerwick, so we set off to walk there, passing the Norwegian named Sandveien and Kantersted on the way.
Lindsay had told me she was going to be eating low-carb and I arrived to the wonderful aroma of a roasting joint of Shetland lamb. We cooked and ate a late breakfast and then headed back out. Melanie (you may remember I spent Wool Week with her last year) was playing in the Mandolin Band as a part of Shetland Folk Festival and I didn’t want to miss it!
After that, the Mae Trio played a twenty minute set, while three little girls danced and spun.
It was a lovely atmosphere, but with only five hours of not-very-good sleep, and with Triar alone in a strange house, I decided we should head back and eat some of that delicious lamb before an early night.
Triar and I were up bright and early the next morning. Unsurprising, I guess, having gone to bed at seven. With Walkfit in mind, we headed out for a morning walk along the road that followed the coastline south. It was beautiful, with the grey rocks, the quiet centre of Lerwick across the bay and the still water under a gentle sky.
In the other direction, lay rocky promontories and islets.
It felt wonderful, walking along that quiet road, going who knows where. Then to cap it all, Triar spotted movement in the water.
To my delight, it was a common seal. Within moments, it hauled itself out of the water and onto a rock, gazing at us as we gazed back.
A thousand steps or so more, we turned to head back. It was breakfast time, after all and still just the start of our Shetland adventure.
And now, back home as I am, I am going to pause there and continue tomorrow. The joiner arrived at 08:23 this morning and is upstairs attaching doors and it’s time for breakfast here too. Tomorrow there will be wartime boats and sunny white beaches, but for now, I’ll leave you with the view from Lindsay’s window and wish you an enjoyable start to the weekend. Thanks for reading.
On Saturday afternoon last week, Anna, Triar and I were due to board the ferry that would take us from Amsterdam to Newcastle. Having quit the AirBnB at ten, it felt like a long day as we waited in Amsterdam central station. Originally we had planned to return to Cafe Luxembourg to try more croquettes, but we were back to carrying our cross-Europe luggage in the rain and the idea of getting somewhere under cover, close to where we had to catch the bus that would take us to the ferry was quite appealing. We spent a good while sitting in Dunkin’ Donuts, stretching out cups of coffee before we moved to a gourmet burger place, which had the added advantage of having its own toilet. Given how many shops there are, as well as trains and buses, the general toilet provision in Amsterdam Centraal is entirely inadequate. Fortunately the burger was also delicious!
The view outside was also worth looking at, especially as an incoming rain shower spread a rainbow across the skyline.
At three thirty, we boarded the bus and by four thirty, we were in our dog friendly cabin on the boat. On the Stavanger – Hirtshals ferry, I think we might have been the only passengers with a dog, but now we definitely had company. The dog next door was crying and there was periodic barking along the corridor, probably in response to the racket of car alarms wailing away on the nearby car deck, but Triar was an old hand at boat travel by now and within a few minutes, he was curled up on a bunk bed, peacefully sleeping.
I had been concerned about coming through customs with a dog to declare when we arrived the following morning, but in the event, after a quick passport check, we were waved on through. A short bus ride into Newcastle took us to the station and before long, we were on the last leg of our journey. We had a rather chilly stop on Carlisle station, but I got to use the lovely sitting mat I received from my friends and colleagues at the abattoir for the first time. I can confirm that it works well!
It didn’t take Triar long to settle in at Mum and Dad’s. Though I had assured Mum that she didn’t need to buy him any food, he was soon chomping down on a packet of bacon treats and his usual dry rations have been partially replaced with some tasty looking Pedigree sachets with jelly. I guess any visit to Grandma and Grandad’s will always result in being spoiled, at least a bit.
Having been incredibly fortunate with the weather for both our ferry crossings, a storm hit on the Tuesday that blew down a tree on the railway line, delaying Anna’s homeward travel, and shut off the electricity for a few hours. I arrived back from dropping Anna off in Skipton to find the house in near darkness. Much as I love candlelight, I prefer to have other options, so I was very glad when the lights came back on, just after ten.
As for the start of my new life in Scotland, things are gradually falling into place. I have rented a house, which I haven’t seen yet, but which will give me a bit more time to find somewhere to buy. I’ve looked at cars, but because new taxation is being brought in that punishes those with older cars if they need to drive into cities, I am going to have to save up to get a newer car than a direct replacement for my beloved, ten year old BMW. In the meantime, Dad will let me use his car. We’ll see how that goes. My intention is to come down most weekends for now, but if Mum and Dad need it back, I may have to come up with a different solution.
I’ve got a UK phone now, though as yet, I haven’t used it at all. And I’ve ordered a refurbished laptop from a shop in Skipton. Writing this block or e-mails is possible on my iPad, but everything else has to be done on paper right now.
Anyway, after days of rain, yesterday morning I woke up to one of those beautiful golden mornings, when the sunrise is softened by low lying mist and the tops of the black winter trees stand graceful in the morning light.
Today the rain is hurling itself against the window again, but it’s cosy inside. Mum and I started making the Christmas pudding on Thursday. The mixture is in the fridge and should be maturing nicely. We’ll cook it tomorrow. I’ve also sent off for some candles for an advent crown and they’re winging towards me as I write. Next week, I’ll be back in Dumfries and I’ll see the house that will be my home for the next few months. I’m feeling optimistic about what’s coming next. See you next week.
It was wonderful to catch up with a few people when I was in the Stavanger area again. I missed seeing my friend Lynn when I was down in at the end of August and we met up for coffee in Sandnes. Then my ex-boss Guro got in touch, so we went for a short walk together and ate delicious pumpkin soup that she brought. Guro also works for Mattilsynet in animal welfare and health, so it was interesting to compare notes about the tiny office in Finnsnes, compared to the much larger scale operation in Sandnes where she works.
We also celebrated Charlie’s birthday, on the 6th November, with food and cake.
It was lovely to catch up with people and also to eat cake, but most of this blog is going to be about our journey, and in particular about Triar. Back when he was younger, we worked hard trying to get him used to doing different things. We took him to the Christmas Marker in Egersund to get him used to crowds and into Stavanger on the train to dog-friendly coffee houses, where he learned to lie under the table while we ate.
But for the past three years, he’s lived a much more isolated life. Occasionally he went into eateries with us, but he never really settled and it was too inconvenient and expensive to be worth pursuing. The nearest train was a two hour drive away in Narvik and somehow, we never got round to taking him on the fast boat to Tromsø.
So I was interested to see how he would cope when he was thrown in at the deep end. The first leg of our journey was on the Fjord Line ferry that goes from Stavanger to Hirtshals in Denmark. We had a dog-friendly cabin, which was very comfortable. Fortunately, the weather could not have been much better and within minutes of boarding, Triar was feeling very relaxed.
Though I woke up a few times to find the boat gently rocking, Triar slept right through the night and seemed very cheery as we arrived in Denmark.
We had booked a taxi for 08:30 to take us from the dock to the railway station, but when I called the taxi firm, they said they had the booking marked for 09:00 and couldn’t get there sooner. Fortunately, there was a bus available, which we managed to hail, just as it was about to leave. We asked the driver whether we could bring the dog on board and he said of course we could.
Triar was such a good boy on the bus that the driver climbed out as he dropped us off to meet him properly. Triar can be a bit stand-offish with new people, but when the driver got down to his level and held out his hand, Triar did go up to him.
Soon we were on the train on the way to Hamburg, changing at Lindholm and Fredericia. We had a ticket for Triar, but the rules said that he had to stay on the floor. We had brought along some of his favourite toys and a chewy stick that Charlie had bought him. I was delighted to see how quickly he settled in.
Between Lindholm and Fredericia, he spent a good long spell chewing:
The Danish trains were very comfortable. On the last (and longest) leg of our journey, he was showing some signs of restlessness, but by the time we arrived in Hamburg, I was feeling very proud of how well he was coping.
The last leg was in a taxi, where he behaved impeccably, sitting at Anna’s feet on the floor. Indeed, he was much calmer than the taxi driver who, as well as making good use of his horn, ended the journey shouting at a woman who complained because he was blocking the cycle path outside the hotel.
Fortunately, the next leg of our train journey was a little shorter. I was thrown for a moment in the morning when I received an email with the words “Journey is cancelled” in large letters across the top. Fortunately it was only from Deutsche Bahn to say that the second train of the day, between Osnabrück Hbf and Amsterdam Centraal was not running. I had panicked for a moment, thinking it might have been the ferry crossing. Here Anna demonstrated the level headedness that had made me so glad when she accepted my invitation to come on this trip. Within moments, she had found information about alternative trains and we arrived in Amsterdam only half an hour later than originally planned.
Triar was mostly a star on the train. A lady with a toddler asked whether it would be okay for her daughter to be introduced to him. He has always been good with children, having spent his earliest days as a puppy with Wivek’s youngest daughter, Tiril, loving and hugging him regularly. Anna carefully controlled the situation, making sure Triar was sitting quietly and offering him food as the tiny girl stroked him quietly and gurgled with pleasure. Her mum made very sure her daughter was gentle and the whole thing went off very well. Triar seemed to enjoy it too.
Unfortunately, he did slightly blot his copybook a little later. Up until this point, he had remained perfectly calm, not moving a muscle, even when various guards came and stood right next to his head in their shiny black boots to inspect our tickets. But a woman came and stood right in front of him, and unlike the guards, she stared straight down at him. For the first and only time on our long journey, he stood up and lunged towards her, letting out a loud bark. Unsurprisingly, she quickly scurried away. I felt frustrated that we hadn’t controlled the situation better, but he had been so good up to this point that I hadn’t been expecting it. To my surprise, the woman with the baby girl still left her on the floor quite close to him and though we kept him on a fairly short lead, he settled back down and was well behaved for the remainder of the journey.
The last leg out to the AirBnB we had booked was on a jam-packed tram. Anna lifted him onto her knee and despite the crush of noisy people all around him, he lay in her arms and went to sleep.
All in all, the trip has gone very well so far. Though Triar looks incredibly sweet – so many people smile when they see him – he has a fairly typical Kooiker nature in that he can be wary of people he doesn’t know. We’ve been very isolated in our little snow-bound house and I’m going to contact a local trainer as soon as we get to Settle because we need to work again on his socialisation, both with people and with other dogs.
Most people probably saw a wonderfully calm, well behaved dog. I know I would have been impressed if I’d seen him as a stranger’s pet. I’m always impressed to see a relaxed dog on public transport. But that single moment with the lunge and the bark was a reminder of how quickly things could potentially go wrong. He’s never bitten anyone, but barking and lunging is alarming, particularly to anyone who’s scared of dogs.
We spent yesterday walking around Amsterdam in the rain, stopping in a cafe to eat some traditional Dutch kroketter. I asked the restaurant owner if we could bring a dog in and he smiled and said that if it was a cute cuddly dog, it was welcome to come in.
Here he is, under the table. I think he probably qualified, though fortunately none of the waiters put his cuddliness credentials to the test. He loves family cuddles, but there are limits!
I would love to come back to Amsterdam for a longer holiday. It’s a very attractive city with its canals and distinctive town houses.
We also completed an essential task yesterday. Triar had to go to the veterinary clinic and take a worming tablet before he enters the UK. I think the vet was impressed with our organisational skills as we arrived with a lump of pâté wrapped in cheese and the tablet was very quickly dispatched. I was also relieved his microchip was still working. It was unlikely it would fail, just at this crucial moment, but if it did, it would be potentially disastrous. We’ve travelled from Norway, through Denmark and Germany to the Netherlands without any kind of passport check, but if Triar isn’t allowed into the UK, we couldn’t take him back to Norway either as the same, stricter rules apply in both places..
This evening we will set off on the last leg of our long journey. An overnight ferry will take us to Newcastle and so tomorrow, assuming all goes well with the UK customs, Triar and I will be starting our new life in the UK. I hope you’ll join us on our new adventure.
A Vet’s Life 