After we disembarked the Queen Mary 2, what I consider our real adventure began. Thanks to my generous mother in law, Dan’s step brother and his wife were waiting for us in Southampton. They had flown to Madrid from Canada, picked up a car and drove to meet us in the UK. There are no words to describe our gratitude or to explain how much this helped us.
The UK portion of our trip was a breeze. We only had a 30-minute drive from Southampton to Portsmouth where we picked up our ferry. After a minor kerfuffle about the United States issuing 3rd country health certificates for the pups instead of pet passports, we drove onto a ferry. If you have never been on a ferry before, might I recommend the Brittany Ferry. They had numerous lounges with reclining chairs, an amazing cafeteria, two movie theatres and a gift store. Dan and I were able to take a long nap, eat dinner and watch “Murder on the Orient Express”. My only complaint was that the dogs had to stay IN the parked car below for the six+ hour trip while Dan and I had to stay OUT of the car. We were allowed one visitation and found that the tummy troubles from the night before were all over the floor. We would smell that ferry ride for the rest of our drive through Europe 
The ferry spit us out in Caen, France. From there we drove to Bordeaux, France and then on to Madrid. In total, the trip from my parent’s driveway to our new hometown took us twelve days. Twelve days that completely changed our lives.
So… now that you are caught up on how we arrived here, sit tight… I am going to introduce you to the new leading lady in our lives… the glorious Madrid.
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