Which way?

Well I managed to book the Santander ferry for November but I was wondering if all you people who have done the drive could tell me what you think please?

Google maps recommend a route from Santander through Zaragoza down to Valencia and then down the coast to Dolores.

Tomtom recommends the Madrid route.

Is there likely to be snow on the edge of the Pyrenees at that time of year? Is one route a better class of road than the other?

Any advice much appreciated ta.

Laury

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Laury,

I have done something like that route when I had to pick up friends at Madrid Airport  the route around madrid is fairly easy then the run to Dolores is an easy all motorway trip the only bit that you may be slowed up on is the route from santander to madrid and having to go by burgos where it is an N road according to via michelin route planner is that how tom tom sends you look here for the route by michelin

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OOh I like that site thanks Conrad.

Bookmarked for future use. 
I like the way it shows the difference in temperatures between Santander and Dolores too. 

Thanks very much for that.

Laury

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Google Maps
Tom Tom /Michelin

Any route that avoids the coast as much as possible gets my vote! Less traffic, less tolls = less stress.

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it tends to be more up to date than the sat navs and you can send the route to your brand of sat nav

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Just to muddy it a bit.

Our dog gets terribly travel sick and those mountain roads will probably do her in.
Is the other route straighter?

Being a person who suffers from travel sickness, I know what winding roads can do.

Laury

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What mountain roads? You won't be crossing the Pyrenees. 
I should worry more about the Bay of Biscay. What's the arrangement for Poochy? How often can you visit, and what about walkies?

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Don't mention the Bay.
My husband is already fretting about that one. He really didn't want to cross it at that time of year as we'll both end up very ill unless it's very calm.
I'm half hoping the poor dog will feel so bad after the boat trip that she'll be past caring by the time we hit the roads. 
Like us really.

Laury

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Oh and I have no idea how the dog thing works. I think they are put in kennels or something and we can visit when we want?

Dunno

 

Laury

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When you first arrive at the ferry docks you have a sticker to put in your car that identifies you have a dog on board so that you can go down the right channel for boarding. There is a room on the top deck where the metal kennels/cages are. The bottom row are the large cages for the larger dogs and the smaller cages on the top are for the smaller dogs. There is no bedding, toys or food in the cages so you need to take all that with you, as the cage floor is bare metal as are the sides and top, with cage bars at the front. On the inside of the cage door there is a fixed twin dish for water and food, the water can be obtained from the sink in the room but you need to provide your own food. 

If you are on the one we sailed on you have a digicard to access the room and you can go at any time for as long as you want, but I think one of the ferries has fixed visiting times, the website will tell you which is which. There is a wooden bench along the wall that you can sit on while you are up with your dogs. Once the dogs are all in the kennels the room is not manned by any staff so you need to check that your dog is ok

The dogs are allowed out on the top deck only for walks and to do whatever they need to do but it will be very cold and windy up there so make sure you are well wrapped up. The dogs are taken from the car deck up in a lift to the 9th deck (I think it is) and then you have a flight of metal steps to go up to the 10th deck where the kennels are. Some dogs can manage these, others needed to be carried.

The kennel area was very noisy with dogs barking most of the time when we came over and our 2 were not happy so we spent a lot of time with them.

We were lucky to have a very calm crossing when we came over in May as I had heard it could be difficult.

I hope you have a good journey

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Many thanks for the detailed info Jacqui

I can't say i'm reassured by it though.

I'm really glad you mentioned the crates and having no bedding. I didn't know. I'll have to study the site again.

We're on the Bretagne I think.

Laury

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We travelled on the Pont Aven so that we could have access as and when we wanted, the Bretagne has visiting times, this is from the Brittany Ferries website:

mv Bretagne Additional Information

There is a water tap nearby and a small exercise area is located just outside the kennel area. Please note that bedding is not supplied so please bring your own. Dogs are NOT allowed in any public area of the ship or cabins and dog owners will be advised of kennel visiting times once onboard.

mv Pont-Aven Additional Information

The kennels are located on deck ten and are accessible at all times via a swipe card which is issued onboard. There is an open-air exercise area just outside the kennels. Feeding and water bowls are provided, and there is a water tap inside the kennels. Bedding is not supplied, please bring your own. Dogs are NOT allowed in any public area of the ship or cabins


It may be that your access to the kennel area will be different to the Pont Aven. I'm trying to give you as much info to prepare you for the journey without causing you upset, but we did find the journey for the pups upsetting. For me (and probably them) it was the worse part of the journey. 

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Thanks Jacqui.

I just found it all. Hopefully she'll sleep most of the time as it's an overnight crossing. Poor girl. I'd still rather do that than stick her in the hold of an aeroplane where the noise would be deafening and as scary as h**l for her.

You did okay, so there's hope.

Did it take the dogs a while to forgive you for the trip?

Laury

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No, the pups were just so pleased to be back with us in the morning that they didn't sulk for very long at all. They had a good sleep as we travelled through northern Spain and by lunch time they were back to normal. You need to remember mine were only 6 months old when we travelled, so they were very young for such a journey.  They seemed to really enjoy being in the car but they have always travelled well in the car from being 6 weeks old.

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Hi Laury, have you read Brinkley's report on his & Brandy's ferry crossing on their blog ? 

http://2littlepuppies.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html


I sobbed, I did. I'm easily upset but Brinkley (alias Jacqui ) wrote such a sad report  ) It sounded awful for them even though Jacqui & Neil were with them a lot. 

Jacqui & Neil invited us to stay overnight with them in June in San Juan de Los Terreos, Almeria so we met Brinkley & Brandy, cute little guys. I think they were 7 months old here. 




Brinkley's account of the crossing : 

 "WE DIDN’T LIKE THE BOAT – IT WAS HORRIBLE!

We wanted to go back in the car.

They put us in prison! Mum and Dad carried us up in this lift thing with other dogs with their mums and dads. They all had their beds and toys and treats, just like us and we thought we were going into another hotel like we’d just been in, but it wasn’t nice like last night. It was a cold, hard metal box with bars we couldn’t get through. At first I was in a different box to Brandy and I didn’t like being on my own, I was frightened. None of the other dogs were happy and they were all barking and shouting and making a lot of noise, which scared us even more.

After a little while mum and dad came back and gave us both a huge cuddle. We didn’t want them to go away again, but they did. This time they put us in the same box, it was a bit cramped but I didn’t mind ‘cos at least I was with our Brandy.

Mum and Dad came back ever so many times and every time I hoped they wouldn’t put us back in the box, but they did. We did go for walks but it was ever so windy and really cold and some times it was raining so we didn’t like it but we needed to pee.

They left us there to sleep at bedtime so we just had to cuddle up together and try and cover our ears to shut out the noise from the other dogs. We didn’t sleep much.

After a long time mum and dad came back and this time they didn’t put us back in the box. They just kept cuddling us for ages and then they took our beds out of the box so we knew we weren’t going back in. Then we went back into the lift and we were back at the car. I didn’t care how long we were going to be in the car, just as long as we weren’t going back in the box.

It was dark and noisy to start with but then we started to move and we could see the sky – and it was blue. Dad drove us away from the boat – I don’t ever want to go there again!

But from then it’s got better……….. "

Jacqui, I hope my copy & paste from your (public) blog is ok. 

We've also met Millie & Shannon, the Cavalier King Charles spaniels belonging to Julia (Jules1 on EOS). Julia drives down to the Torrevieja area from Cambridgeshire with her dogs. She's in Spain now, we saw her on Sept 24th, she'd driven down for the 2nd time. She's posted on EOS about her drive down, search for it.


This message was last edited by morerosado on 10/3/2008.

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Thanks ladies.

Ellie was driven to the Midlands to visit our sons when she was 10 weeks old and was very ill all the way there and back.
We have had trouble even getting her to go in the car since then.
The last time we took her to the Midlands, the vet gave us a strong sedative for her and she was zonked.
I want to avoid that this time but I think we'll have a very ill dog and smelly car the whole way.
Baby wipes, kitchen roll and lots of bags will be the order of the day. 

At least you could visit your dogs any time. It looks like we won't be able to.

Luckily she was crated as a pup so the cage shouldn't cause her any trauma. 

Laury


This message was last edited by Lauryc on 10/3/2008.

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