Animalcouriers docked at the Spanish port of Bilbao yesterday morning and headed straight for Madrid to collect Charlotte from AAH Vets. Her owners have gone on ahead to England, and neighbours have been looking after her in the meantime.
From Madrid we headed into Portugal where, thanks to out-of-season deals, we were able to book a room at the Pousada Hotel in Extremoz. (Pousadas are luxury, traditional or historical hotels — a bit like the Paradors in Spain.) Called La Rainha Isabel, our hotel was set in the 13th century Extremoz castle, with a fine view over the surrounding countryside where white marble deposits are found. Extremoz has a history of Roman and Muslim occupancy, and has always been important geographically because of its proximity to Spain.
Charlotte is a rather shy and feisty cat, who didn’t want us to get too close to her at first. But last night, with lots of quiet chatting and gentle handling, we managed to persuade her out of her carry box and into her much more comfy travel compartment. This morning, after a light breakfast, Charlotte was willing to have a little conversation with courier M, without any of the throaty growls and hissing we heard yesterday.
After a spot of sightseeing around our hotel, we set off to collect a ferret called John Dorian Silva. He off to join Marta who’s moved from Lisbon to Leicester where she works as a nurse. He’s been staying at LIsbon Zoo’s pet hotel, which seems a rather special place. With fine facilities and expertise on hand, the zoo set up the pet hotel as a commercia enterprise to raise extra funds for the zoo.
Our next stop was to meet Jacqueline and collect her cat called Banca who’s heading to Birmingham. ‘Banca’ is Portuguese for doll or dolly — a thoroughly appropriate name for this very sweet little cat.
Continuing the theme of castles, we drove to Queluz National Palace to meet handsome TomTom, a white German Shepherd Dog. He’s travelling with us to Luton to rejoin his owner Chris who works at the airport. We wonder if TomTom’s name was inspired by Chris’s job?
Debi and her family are returning to Wales from Portugal, and we’re transporting their cats and terrapins for them. Cats Cerys and Dylan are 16 years old and have been together ever since they were kittens. The terrapins are called Thor and Odin — with these names, we suspect they may have been responsible for all the thunder and lightning that was going on when we met them!
Wonderful photos. Thank you for sharing them.
You can see that couriers J&M were rather taken with the castle!
Heartwarming animals again and beautiful pictures 🙂 Pawkisses for a safe trip ahead 🙂
It was a very special place. Now travelling with rain 🙁
Great photos. Cute critters.
Couriers J&M rather fell for the place.
Lovely pictures of the town. It would certainly make my knees go very wobbly.
We commend couriers J&M for getting the photos.
“But last night, with lots of quiet chatting and gentle handling, we managed to persuade her out of her carry box and into her much more comfy travel compartment.” You guys have a magic touch when it comes to animals. Dr. Dolittle would be jealous. –Curt
Some things take time 😉
The view of the country side in the third pic is a beauty. Love the white shepherd. .
Quite a marvellous veiw. TomTom is a delight.
What beautiful scenery along with beautiful animals… what could be better?
There were no complaints at all! Mind you, the rain they’re travelling through now isn’t so much fun.
A ferret named John Dorian Silva. Isn’t that just the best thing?
Indubitably! But terrapins called Thor and Odin are rather good too 😉
Thanks for the lovely photos…very nice to take a trip from my sofa with a broken foot!
Oh no! Haven’t been keeping up very well – how did it happen?
Shopping at Ikea…can be very dangerous! 🙂 Haven’t posted since June, very busy launching my dog collars…visited London three times in 6 weeks this summer!
Oh, my…we loved these pictures of Portugal and your passengers today! Pretty wants to visit Portugal so bad she can taste it!! She would love to be there for Thanksgiving today!! 🙂
Safe travels…Happy Thanksgiving from across the Pond – we are thankful for you!
You get Pretty there soonest – she’d find the real taste of Portugal quite to her liking!
Beautiful castle pictures and the animals are great too
It was a rather magnificent place to stay and the animals didn’t mind the walks either 😉
Gorgeous castle and another beautiful set of travelers! Safe travels all!
That looks a fascinating place to stay.
You have some lovely passengers again!