Driving from UK to Finland

When I moved to Nottingham last September, I did not think that I was going to have to be doing the same trip back only 6 months later, but here we are! :D

All in all, the whole trip went well for me. Apart from the few wrong turns and roads closed, it only took me a thousand miles and 6 days to get home! ;)

So Vallu left on Tuesday afternoon with John Parker International, and arrived at my brother's place in Germany on Wednesday evening. It was very efficient driving from the company, and I've never seen Vallu travel so well, he was super fresh when I saw him on Thursday midday.

Driving to Hull

The drive to Hull from Nottingham went incredibly smoothly - after obviously first getting a bit lost for 10 minutes... The boat trip from Hull to Rotterdam only takes 12 hours, so you leave Hull in the evening and arrive in Rotterdam the next morning. I might end up taking a day trip to Rotterdam one day since it was so easy to do!

And I managed to get some work done on the ferry!

Obligatory selfie ;)

And obviously the first time you see once you leave the port in Holland is a windmill. Even though I was absolutely petrified of driving on the right side of the road with a car made to be driven on the left side, this managed to make me laugh so much. The drive from Rotterdam to Krefeld took about 2.5 hours with a break in the middle and it was a nice drive until my GPS decided to make me drive into the city centre of Krefeld instead of the stables... Which resulted in me driving around the centre of town for half an hour whilst on the phone to dad screaming get me out of here now!!! Thanks to dad I eventually got to the stables

Holland

My friends made me GREAT driving music

Crossing from Holland into Germany

Vallu in Germany

First proper grass of 2014

Vallu doing crunches to get his abs into summer shape ;)

I saw a beautiful photo collage in the saddle room of some of the horses that Henri had competed with last year. These three horses were some of the most brilliant horses that I've ever had to pleasure to meet, and I'm sure they will take their respective owners to new places (especially Rosamunde on the left who is taking the American dressage world by storm)

Vallu loving life in the paddock

It's a giraffe?

My small guest in my car looking at the stables

If I ever get to build my own indoor arena, it will be a replica of this!!!

 Since Vallu was feeling so good, I decided to lightly ride him on Friday and he felt amazing! We only did about 20 minutes of work, but Vallu felt so happy and full of energy (good energy, not the crazy energy we sometimes get) This was followed by an amazingly calm hack around the massive fields surrounding the stables - cue a slightly hyperventilating me - but it all went very well and I was very pleased with Vallu then. Saturday was great as well, I picked up my friend who had flown over from Finland to Dusseldorf on Friday evening to come drive back home with me, and she spent the day with me at the stables. Vallu was a very good boy again (he's been very good for a very long time now... Hmmmm) and we managed to get the first proper sweat of the year. YES, warm spring time!! Shame that we had to go from +22c in Germany to -1c in Finland... 

Saturday on the fields again

We left Krefeld in the late afternoon on Saturday, and arrived in Travemunde at 11pm. A whole five/six hours had gone into driving there, and can I just say how much I am not looking forward to that drive in the autumn on my way to Nottingham... After 4 hours of driving my brain gets bored and my bum starts to become numb. Not a great combo!! :D

STUNNING

Windswept and interesting ;)

During the 27 hours that we spent on the ferry, I got to see some of the most beautiful sights of sunsets and sunrises that I've seen in a long time, no wonder some people love going cruises and boat trips. We arrived in Helsinki on Monday morning at 9.30am, but it took a while for us to get off the ferry as they let off the lorries first. I dropped off my lovely friend at her place and then managed to drive home by myself with no problems.

Vallu left Germany this morning (Saturday) and should be here at home on Monday late morning/midday! Finally, I can't wait for him to get home again ♥︎