The Collecting of Amy ... Caymenstaffs Jewel of Spain at Siglo

 

We had worked it out that the best way to pick up our new puppy from the UK was to fly there and bring Amy back in the cabin as hand luggage, which is possible on Iberia flights as long as the dog weighs less than 8 kilos. Also as Amy was only 8 weeks old, all she would need to travel was to be micro chipped and have a pet passport ... rabies wasn't needed as she was less than 12 weeks. And most importantly of all Alan and Julie (Amy's breeders) had agreed to meet us at the airport with Amy

 

The trip started on Thursday 26th of June 2008. It was a meticulously planned journey with the flights having been booked so it gave me time to make all of my connections. This was the plan ... starting out with a drive to Alicante to catch the Easyjet flight to Luton airport where I was going to meet Alan and Julie who were driving there from their home in South Wales. Then we were going to drive down to London Heathrow airport where I (well Amy and I really) were going to take the Iberia flight to Barcelona with Amy going along in her little pet carrier as cabin baggage. Then we were catching a flight to Valencia where Victoria was meeting us .... that was the plan, anyway!!

Victoria dropped me off at Alicante airport at 10.00 am and I caught my first flight which was only 20 mins late ... no problems so far ... if there had been say a three hour delay with this flight, I wouldn't have been able to go to pick her up as all my connecting flights would be missed. On the plane I was telling the guy next to me all about the trip and he told me that the 2 hours I had allowed to get to Heathrow on the M25 may not be enough as there was a 6 hour standstill on the M25 a couple of weeks before ... that added to the worries I already had.

 

I arrived at Luton OK and met up with Alan and Julie and got my first look at little Amy ... she was a little cutie ! We set off for Heathrow with Julie driving and thankfully found the M25 all clear. When we got to Heathrow we had plenty of time so we had a bite to eat and a beer. Then I went to check in for the flight and messed about having to get her weighed, then paid for as excess luggage, then getting paperwork stamped and finally a boarding card. We were all going upstairs for me to go through security when security staff were rushing about telling everyone to evacuate the terminal ... this we found out later was due to a *bomb scare*. We had to go outside then were told to all go to the other side of the service road ... police cars and vans came with sirens and lights on ... there was tape put across the road and we just had to wait. I kept looking at my watch ... originally there was an hour to my flight leaving, that time was passed plus another 20 mins before we were allowed back in Terminal 2.

 

I was beginning to worry as I originally had 2 hours to spare in Barcelona but with this delay I wasn't sure if I was going to make it and that was the last flight out of Barcelona that day. There was a mad dash to get to the security and passport control with suits, Blackberries and flailing laptop cases all around us !! The flight had obviously been put on hold for us and we were all on the Iberia aircraft pretty quickly ... me still looking at my watch every 30 seconds. The plane taxied out and we waited and waited, almost half an hour while other planes took off before us as I assume they were all boarded and everyone was ready to go at the same time due to the delay. eventually we took off and made good time on the flight. I thought that I would just make the Valencia flight. Well, it took forever to get off the plane and we all got on to a bus which must have traveled via Malaga to the terminal building, stopping on the way to let other buses in, stopping to let a plane out etc. Luckily there was no queue at passport control so I then ran to the other end of the airport ... it's amazing how much speed you can get up to running on the moving walkways! Poor Amy was getting the ride of her life ... well I didn't have time to go to check in and get a boarding pass as the plane was leaving in 15 minutes, so i went straight to the gate where the really helpful 'chica' looked me up on the computer and then she wrote me out a boarding card ... as soon as she had done this the flight was called so Amy and I boarded the last flight out to Valencia with the 9 other passengers ... I had a beer then and dropped down to about a six on the old tension scale. Victoria was there to meet us at Valencia at midnight and she even made me drive home after all I had been through !!

 

All throughout the trip, Amy was as good as gold ... you would not even have known she was there, although there were a few double takes when her Burberry style carrier started moving and wriggling on it's own !!

 

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