An extra day! Thanks ash cloud :)

We were originally scheduled to fly out of London's Heathrow Airport on Monday afternoon. All day Sunday we were hearing that the airport might be closed and flights cancelled. If we were going to fly out on Monday, we needed to leave the hotel at 5am. I set the alarm at 4am and phoned Air Canada first thing to check on the flight to find it had in fact been cancelled. Thankfully Nina, one of the team managers, gave me a direct phone number to call and I was able to get us booked onto the 1pm flight Tuesday. With that all done, Rick and I headed back to bed to get a few more hours of sleep.

We had a good sleep in and then headed to the hotel restaurant for a really good british breakfast which consisted of eggs, bacon, sausage, baked beans, mushrooms, tomatoes and fried bread! Wow, it was huge but it was also very good. After breakfast we relaxed in the beautiful sunshine and then looked into a trip to Cheddar. We originally thought we would take a train but found a small bus that would take a bunch of us for only 23 pounds each way, pretty good when we had 17 people go. Cheddar is famous for the caves and gorge but I couldn't have imagined how amazing both would be.

The map of Cheddar and it's Caves & Gorge

It was a pretty little town.

Because we had so many people in our group we were able to get a group rate into the Caves and the museums. I had no idea how amazing those caves could be, not generally something I would be interested in but so glad we did it.

The pictures don't do it justice, the height of the caves were unbelievable.

Rick decided he would climb up one of the walls of the cave (much to Nina's dismay...I think she was worried about getting kicked out, lol) but right behind him was Kayl...they are way up there!

The build-up on the cave walls over the years. I thought it would be goopy but it was actually hard as a rock.

After the first cave we went into a museum (that was a bit disturbing - we learned a whole new meaning for batton, eww) but at one section you could paint on the walls...Rick painted the "Agility 2010" on there :)

Marty told Nina to squeeze herself into one of the cracks in the next cave :)

Cox's Cave was a bit disturbing, lol (as per the sign). They made it more of a haunted cave, the funniest was when someone slammed a wooden door behind Kayl who then leapt onto my back while screaming only to have me leap onto Nina screaming! Poor Nina!! LOL

With all the caves and museums done, we took the time to walk around the town and check out the cute shops. We of course were on a mission to find cheese in Cheddar :)

Cheddar was so beauitful.

We found the Cheddar Gorge Cheese Company!

For everyone that asks why I'm not in any pictures, it's because I always had the camera but I let Rick have the camera for the day. Here Nina and I are trying out all the different cheeses. Nice pic of me ;) I think the cow is wondering what I think of it, haha.

After the cheese sampling and shopping our group decided to split up. The healthy Nina, Teri and Rick wanted to climb the nearly 300 stairs to the lookout tower overlooking the gorge and the rest of us wanted to go find a pub for drinks and food :)

Our lunch pub - too bad the dogs didn't come along (though they probably wouldn't have fit on the bus, we were crammed in ourselves). Even dogs were allowed in the caves!

I think my photo style rubbed off on Rick over the two weeks, this was a picture he took on the way up to the tower...very cool.

Teri & Nina in the lookout tower...did Rick even make it up the whole way?!?

I guess he must have since here is a picture of the beautiful scenery from the lookout tower and it was on my camera ;)

After our lunch & drinks our group decided to take the open topped double decker bus to see the gorge. Imagine our surprise to see Rick, Nina and Teri already on the top waiting for us. What an amazing little tour of the gorge on the top of that bus, the best!

The pictures don't do it justice on how high it was.

Another view of the gorge.

My favorite sign of the day.

We finished up our day with a nice dinner with Kayl, Deb & Marty at a local pub close to the hotel. The fish & chips were delish and the desert was amazing. When we arrived there wasn't anywhere to sit with the team so we went to a different section of the restaurant. There was a guy sitting at the table beside us who just couldn't stop sneezing! I know that doesn't sound funny but let me tell you, we had some serious giggles and a few tears over that dinner. A dinner I won't forget anytime soon :)

Kayl and I went for a swim (wish I had tried the pool out before the final night) before calling it a night and getting sleep before our trip home the next day.

We were up bright and early the next morning to check out and have a quick breakfast. The bus ride to Heathrow was quite entertaining sitting beside Susan & John. Susan kept us entertained and made the ride go quick. Funny that John offered to let us take Susan instead of keeping her for the rest of their trip in the UK ;) We arrived at cargo for the team to drop off the dogs. It was almost 11am by that time and our flight was at 1pm so we decided to call a cab to get to the terminal as the team's flight wasn't until 3pm. About 10 minutes later the cab arrived and it took about 15 min to get to the terminal. Once in we found the Air Canada line up which was quite long and got in the back of the queue (that's British for line up, haha). It wasn't more than a minute before they were calling out "is anyone going direct to Ottawa"....sweet! Yes, we are flying direct to Ottawa :) The next thing we knew, we were at the front of the line-up (passing Marty and Deb) and getting our tickets. Little did we know how far our gate was away from there. We got our tickets and started walking and only made it to the gate as they were calling us to board!

The plane ride was long but very uneventful. I watched 2 movies, a few 2 1/2 men episodes and then 3 episodes of Glee! I know, what the heck?! I think I have become a Gleek now, hahaha.

We arrived in Ottawa and got through customs pretty quick to our waiting luggage and then found a cab to Tiffany's house where we had left our car. We had the most amazing sign attached to our car when we arrived:

Thanks Kyra for making our day!!!

I am sad to say this is the end of our blog...thanks for following along!

IFCS World Championships, North Somerset

Sadly once we arrived in Highbridge I wasn't able to get an internet connection without tethering to my iPhone which was extremely slow so no blogging until we arrived home.

The original reason for our trip to Europe was to go watch the IFCS World Agility Championships and support Baxter & Ripley's breeder, Tiffany Salmon and her red bc Rio (Baxter's mom and Ripley's grandma). They were named to the team so we were quite excited to see them run on the world stage. Of course we also wanted to support the rest of the Canadian Team too :)

We had to get up nice and early each morning to head out with the team to Hand Equestrian Centre for the competition. On Friday they had an opening ceremony with all the teams coming out with their dogs. Our flag barer was Kayl McCann and her amazing 11 year old dog Ping Pong. Kayl & Ping have represented Canada in every IFCS World Championships that we have attended in the past 8 years. They are an incredible team coming in 4th place overall in the 16" division and came home with a Bronze Medal in the Individual Biathalon.

Kayl & Ping Pong are the flag barer's - very fitting for Canada

The Canadian Agility Team

One of the best ideas we found was how they clear the course after the walk through time is up. They had a rope go all the way across the ring and volunteers would walk that rope towards the other end of the arena pushing the handlers out :) It was done to great music and the volunteers loved it.

Clearing the ring.

Tiffany and Rio had a great weekend. They came home with 2 medals - silver in the Individual Biathalon and bronze in the Individual Jumpers. It was exciting to see them run and do so well.

My favorite picture of Rio (taken by Rick)

TNT Rio with her Silver (Ind Biathalon) and Bronze (Ind Jumpers) Medals

The weekend over - Canada comes home with 9 individual medals and 1 team medal - awesome!

Lucie & Nitro - Silver - Individual All Round 16"

Tiffany & Rio - Silver - Individual Biathalon 26"

Kayl & Ping Pong - Bronze - Individual Biathalon 16"

Susan & Feature - Gold - Individual Standard 26"

Susan & Encore - Bronze - Individual Standard 26

Chris & Setna - Bronze - Individual Snooker 22"

Susan & Encore - Silver - Individual Snooker 26"

Kim & Recess - Silver - Individual Jumpers 22"

Tiffany & Rio - Bronze - Individual Jumpers 26"

Ken & Blitz, Marie-Pierre & Minnie and Kim & Recess - Bronze - Team

It was a great weekend of agility - amazing handlers and dogs and lots of fun. Really glad we made the trek to the UK, plus I loved taking pictures of the team too.

London - Day 3

Our last day in London was a sports day. We had an early breakfast then checked out of the hotel. The great thing was we were able to leave our extremely heavy luggage with the hotel while we toured London. Our first stop was Wimbledon. The little town of Wimbledon was just beautiful...huge houses, nice shops and the most amazing Lawn and Tennis Club!!

A picture of the Town of Wimbledon

Once we figured out which direction to go to get to the Tennis Club, we had a nice long walk to get there. It was a great walk checking out the huge homes, nice cars and the incredible golf course that we passed. We were awed when we finally arrived at Wimbledon, such an amazing venue.

The entrance to Wimbledon

We decided to do the full tour which lasted 90 minutes and we got to see all of the courts used in June/July, the broadcast centre, Aorangi Terrace, Centre Court, the players restaurant etc. It was a very interesting tour with a great tour guide. The most interesting thing was that after the Championship, they take away all the grass on the courts and re-seed for the next year. If you went in October, you would only see topsoil so we were lucky to go in May when the lawns are almost perfect. At each of the courts there was a security guard walking around the court and our tour guide told us how they were there only because they had taken down the electric fence that went around the courts in order for the workers to get things done. You would think they just don't want you to step onto that pristine grass but the real reason for the electric fence and when that is taken down, the 24hr security guard, is to keep fox from pooping on the grass...guess they like the nice grass to do their business, lol.

Court #1 - they were starting to put up the nets the day we were there. Notice the security guard on this side of the court...he keeps the fox away ;)

Aorangi Terrace - they put a huge screen tv and people come here to sit and watch on the tv. To the left you can see a waterfall that starts at the top of the steps and comes right down, was so pretty!

The "Rick" picture of the day - Rick taking questions in the Broadcast centre, LOL

Last year they added the retractable roof to Centre Court. People said that if they put a roof on that they wouldn't need it, and guess what...they were right. They only closed the roof once last year but long term it was still worth it. We actually saw them open it which is when I took this picture.

After the tour we did a bit of shopping in the gift shop and then headed back to the town. We had a little snack at a local bakery and then jumped back on the Tube to head to our next sports venue for the day...Chelsea Football Club's Stadium. Chelsea FC was this years FA cup winning team and do they ever love their soccer! The tour guide was so funny and really knew his stuff which made it really fun. We were shown the stadium, the locker rooms for both the home and away team, the media centre and some of the boxes. It was amazing to learn that the sponsor Samsung pays THEM 90 million pounds for 5 years to have the Samsung name on the jerseys. The even more staggering amount was that Adidas PAYS Chelsea FC 110 million pounds for 5 years to allow Adidas to supply all the uniforms for players and all staff...can you imagine?!

The front entrance of the Chelsea FC

We got to watch a bunch of guys play soccer (wish I could say it was actually the Chelsea team) who have enough money to rent the field to play on. The tour guide cut them up so we all watched for a while and they laughed at them...poor guys.

After the tours we headed back to Paddington Station to get lunch and then back to the hotel to pick up our bags. We had the most amazing pub lunch with Rick having roast beef wrapped in a yorkshire pudding...was really cool looking and tasted good too. We picked up our bags and headed to the bus station for our bus to Highbridge near Sommerset England for 3 days of the IFCS World Agility Championships.

Couldn't resist taking this picture - The Central Line was partially suspended due to a person under the train!!! They posted this at all the stations. The day before we had a derailment and this day we had a suicide, nice...


Even with Tube delays we were able to lug our heaving suitcases to the bus station with lots of time to spare. The bus arrived and we all got on and it left right on time. It was a 4 hour bus ride to Highbridge with the first stop in Bristol. The bus driver was a pretty funny guy making jokes along the way to keep us entertained. As we pulled into Bristol he said that the people going to Highbridge (and one other stop) would need to get off the bus. I looked at Rick and said "do you think he is serious?" but both Rick and I thought he was joking. When we stopped Rick got off to get some food out of our case that was under the bus. The driver asked me where we were going and when I told him, he said we needed to get off as they weren't going to be going go Highbridge. You can imagine that at 9pm I wasn't too happy about that idea. But don't worry, it worked out great...they didn't want to drive only 4 people all the way there when they could put us in a cab. The cab driver dropped the other two people off and then actually took us right to the hotel we were staying at, it was great!


Friday morning was an early start as we went with the Canadian Team to the venue.

London - Day 2

This morning we got up fairly early as we didn't want to waste what little time we have in London in bed, even though the bed is seriously comfy. I was checking my iPhone and saw that Tiffany had wrote a new post on her blog (for the people that haven't seen her blog, it is at http://blog.tntbordercollies.com) We had a bit of a laugh about her experience with the bathroom lights, water etc. Little did I know that I was in for a few good laughs myself when I went for my first London shower. It took me a while to figure it all out but we eventually got it, got ready and had a nice breakfast at the hotel.

The outside of our hotel.

After breakfast we jumped onto the Tube and headed to Westminster Millennium Pier. The first thing we saw as we exited the Tube was Big Ben and what timing, exactly 10am so we got to hear the 10 chimes. What a beautiful sight and huge (that's for you mom!) We took a walk to see the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. We got a bit of a lesson from a local that saw us looking at the buildings so that was nice.

Big Ben at 10am.

We then crossed over the River Thames to look for the River City Boat Cruise that we planned to use as it offers a hop-on, hop-off option along the Thames. Of course when Rick saw the Millennium Eye he couldn't resist hopping on for a look at the City of London from above. I opted out of this little adventure as that really isn't my thing...I know, I am a big chicken.

A picture of the Millennium Eye from the Houses of Parliament.

A look at the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben from the Millennium Eye.

After Rick was done his 30min ride and I had done a nice walk in the area, we jumped onto the River City Cruise boat for a ride along the Thames. One of the crew members did a great commentary along the way and we got lots of pictures. It was a very interesting trip, totally worthwhile.

The London Bridge :)

We got off the boat at the London Bridge City Pier to check out a few different sights. First we visited the Tower of London that was founded by William the Conqueror in 1066-67. It is one of the world's most famous fortresses and a world heritage site.

One of the buildings inside the Tower of London.

A guard marching.

We then headed over to see the Tower Bridge and were lucky enough to see it raised which only happens approx. 2 times a day. What a beautiful structure and the tour was great...lots of stairs (we are getting quite fit on this trip) and lots of great sights from above. I must say that the movement from the wind wasn't my favourite but it was worth it.

The bridge was up for a steam boat.

A look at London from the upper walkway of the Tower Bridge.

We checked out the Engine Room to see how they raise the Bridge, checked out a few videos and then after we found a nice pub for lunch and to rest from all our walking.

A street of pubs and restaurants :)

We then hopped back onto the Tube to head to Canary Warf. Rick had read lots about the Warf and wanted to check it out. It was incredible how many new buildings are being built in this area, very unique styles. We checked out some shops in Canada Square :) as well as touring the Warf, it is a pretty area.

What a great name :)

We watched as a swan was turning his/her eggs.

A view of the City from Canary Warf. We like the Egg shaped building best, lol.

We finished the day by doing a bit of shopping (books, chocolates etc) and then back to the hotel. I wanted to go to Harrods for some special chocolates that I didn't pick up yesterday but thanks to a derailment on the Piccadilly Line this morning (we heard that when we were on the tube in the am, now they are just saying it is an engineering issue, lol) we didn't make it in time before they closed :( Now we will have to try again tomorrow. We stopped for fish n chips for dinner and are now headed to bed. Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day. We are checking out of the hotel but get to spend the full day in London and then leave on the bus to Somerset at 6pm. Our expected arrival time in Somerset is 9:55pm and that isn't even at the hotel...yikes. Might not be a blog tomorrow.

London - Day 1

We had to say au revior to Paris this morning. We loved our time in Paris and were sad to go but were excited for our trip to the London on the Eurostar. We arrived at the station and went through all the customs and security before having our final breakfast of french pastries. It was a nice waiting room until we were ready to board the train. They don't fool around, the doors closing and the train leaving on time.

Our Eurostar Train.

I had my camera out for the 2 hour trip in case I saw anything cool. The train was going unbelievably fast so when I saw something that I liked, put the camera to my face and tried to get it ready, the picture I wanted was no longer there, lol.

Here is my favourite one to show you the speed we were going with a very cute little village in the background.

Another village just before we went into the tunnel.

One of the first things we saw after arriving in the UK. Made us think of our boys Rip & B :) The funny thing is the first dog I saw in Paris was a wire fox terrier and the first dog we saw in the UK was a border collie...I am sure we will see a few more of those in a few days at the Worlds.

Arriving at the London train station.

Plaque at the London St Pancras Station.

After arriving in London we figured out which direction to go for the hotel and made our way there. The tube system is as easy as the Paris one which is great. After checking in early and dropping off our fairly heavy bags we headed out for some lunch and then to check out a few sights.

Rick and his new best friend?!

A phone booth or a washroom stall?! Rick said it stunk like the later.

An old and a new double decker...so British :)

Are we allowed to cross without a horse or bike?! lol

Our first official site was the Wellington Arch. They say it is one of the most viewed London landmarks thanks to its proximity to Hyde Park Corner.

Wellington Arch - note the horse poop under the arch...I guess they were allowed to cross the street, hehe.

Our next stop was the shopping district off Knightsbridge. We didn't buy anything today but I did see a few things that I want to go back and check out in the next few days.

The Burberry Store was a beautiful building.

The corner of Harrods.

Harrods from a distance.

More shops, such beautiful buildings.

Some housing in the area, some seriously fancy cars in the neighbourhood. Rick loved that.

Our next stop was Royal Albert Hall. It opened in 1871 and was dedicated to the memory of Victoria's consort, Prince Albert. The circular building holds one of the world's most famous auditoriums. Sadly we arrived to find out that the tours were not being done until Friday as they have some awards ceremony this coming Thursday.

Albert Monument across from Royal Albert Hall.

Royal Albert Hall

I made Rick walk all the way from the Piccaddilly Circus tube stop to Harrods then to Royal Albert Hall, he wasn't too happy with that much walking. After we finished we ended up taking a double decker bus back to avoid the hour-ish walk that we did to get there :)

Tomorrow we plan to go on the River Thames cruise and check out lots more sites. Rick wants to go to Westminster Abbey or 10 Downing and be a part of the election protest to get onto tv. Watch for us on the BBC around 1pm EST tomorrow :) bahaha.