I dont think so, it will be very expensive for me, think al the cute mice who want's to come home with me.. and al the other cute small animals =)) But it could have been fune to do something like that..

I'm going to London, but i think I'm going in october. So I won't have enough money to go in september aswell…

#1 Ah, too bad…

 #2 October, huh? Bummer… So is it a "mouse trip" or something else?

It´s a nice show, with lots of animals to buy…

#4 Yes, so I've heard. Fancy coming with me, Grodan?

#3 I'm going to London to see "French & Saunders - Still Alive"

#6 Really? How cool!! I love French & Saunders!

You do? Freaky! (They are my idols)
I saw them in Bristol april 27 th, and then I heard that they were taking the show in to London sometime in october! And I just HAVE to see it again!

I'm so sorry for stealing the thread!

Nah, you're not stealing the thread, I asked, didn't I? :) I love British humour (Men Behaving Badly, anyone?), and French & Saunders are unbeatable. I like them together more than Jennifer Saunders & Joanna Lumley (think I got it right) in Absolutely Fabulous (Helt Hysteriskt) even if some episodes definitely have their moments. So you've seen this show once before, how was it? Well, sort of a stupid question, I assume it was good since you're seeing it again. *lol*

How are you travelling to London? Just for the show or for several days?

Well, the plan is to be there for the show mainly, but it depends on how I get there. Bringing a car and going by boat takes a lot more time than just flying over and back. I won't have money to shop or stay somewhere fancy, but having a pint or two at a pub or so is a must!

But are you not going to bring any mice with you home?

I don´t know about rules for rodents by air, think it depends on which company you go with. Sometimes rat-judges from UK brings reserved rats so it´s not impossible.

Of course it´s easier if you go by car and boat… driving car in UK…yey!

My economy don´t allow me to travel… and… I hate travelling, but if you go and can take mice with you home I wanna have…

Finnair allows rodents, so if I have to fly, I'll go with them. Well, on my way home at least, thought I'd take a Ryan Air flight on my way over there to save some money.

Won't be able to bring back any mice at all if I fly home.  I can take 10 without getting an import license (with the license there's no limit), but by plane I doubt I can afford bringing back even as many as that, and I need all the space for syrian hamsters. I've had a deal with a hamster breeder since last fall, and that's the reason I'm going in the first place, because what I'm getting from England in quality I can't even come close to finding in Sweden, so I really need them.

However, by car/boat it'd be worth getting a license, and I'd be happy to bring back whatever mice people would like me too.

why can´t you afford bringing back 10 by air? what does it cost? is it per animal?

#14 I haven't got a final price yet, but the approx. price is a couple of thousand SEK… My own ticket excluded. I thought it'd be much cheaper and just a price per kg, but they informed me there are other fees as well. I'm waiting for more information by email, there were a couple of things they needed to get confirmed.

I'd have to check with work if I could get time off, but that would me a lot of fun!

#16 It sure would!!! And I'd love the company!

#15 What other fees? Since when did you have to pay so much? I don´t get it…

#18 I don't get it either. But it was the same issues with SAS. We keep getting catch 22. They say they need to know exactly how many hamsters/mice and what size of cages I'm bringing to give me a price estimate, and I keep explaining I need to know a base figure before I can decide how many I can afford to take with me. They're also not clear on what type of cage they require and if I'm allowed to put several smaller pet boxes/traveling cages into a larger box/cage, since I can only bring 2 of those, otherwise we're talking 2 cages maximum. 

I really wish I had a car and a driver's license, that'd be ideal and I could bring some furries for other people as well.

Seems that a train ticket would be cheaper for the return.

#20 Funny you should say that! I just spoke with my dad, and he's interested in going too, maybe my sister as well, and he mentioned taking the train from Holland back (ferry from England to Holland I believe).

it really sounds fun! I really want to go. But I dont think I have any money :(  an approximate cost…?

#22 Sorry, really can't say, I don't even know myself yet. Depends a lot on what transportation (air/train/boat), where to stay, if/how many pets to bring back etc

How is it going with your plans to visit London Champion Show?

Ít's going so-so. Still not sure about any details, except that I AM going, and my dad is coming with to lend a helping hand. But if I get my way, we'll take a Ryan Air flight there to save some money, and then the boat home.

Are you going to bring mice with you home?

I hope so. I'd like to get my hands on some recessive yellows at least, but so far I've had no luck finding any. The space will be limited because of the hamsters though, I've got quite a bunch booked already.

Aha, so you´re actually going for the hamsters not for the mice… I´m dissapointed…

I want you to bring me a big pew…

I'm going mainly for the hamsters, yes, but mice are important too!  If I find you a nice pew, I promise I'll get it!!!

Oh! Thanx! *happi* *bounsing around*

Hopefully you will make a lot of pictures of the show and put them on the forum!

Does England have anything that we don't have in Sweden? (When it comes to mice).

#31 That´s almost an order!

#32 Rumpwhite, Pearl, Silver Grey, Recessive Yellow?, Extreme non-agouti…

Wonder how long it will take to get there if you go by car…

We'll see if my camera will work, but I'll do my best to get pictures. I think my dad might have one in his cellphone though, so if everything else fails that might be the backup.

It's been decided that we'll fly over there, and then on our way back we will either take a ferry to Holland or the train to Belgium, and then go by train from there. Yikes… What have I gotten myself into, I wonder…

#34 it´s too expensive with petrol…

#35 the way back I don´t understand… why not with ferry to Göteborg and from there the train?

You can't go by ferry from Göteborg anymore, I think. But you can take the ferry from Esbjerg in Denmark to Harwich in England… Really expensive though, so not an option for me.

GAh! Seams to be very difficult to bring animals from UK to Sweden… Can´t you go by air? Some company must allow animals - others have brought rats over here and both mice and rats to Finland…

Seems that UK has a lot of restrictions as well when it comes to taking animals by plane. Maybe car or train is best (easiest)… But time-consuming…

By airplane it's very expensive, and also they can only guarantee 2 cages per flight per person. Going over there for 4 cages just isn't worth it. You can take the ferry from Gothenburg still, only it's not a cruise ship, but you'd have to smuggle the animals onboard and leave them in the car on car deck for more than 24 hs with no chance of checking on them, and I don't dare to take that risk. So much can happen during such a long time. So we'll go by train on our way back. Very time consuming. Right now I'm much more worried than excited, and am not looking forward to it at all. Hopefully it'll feel a bit better once I'm there.

Would have loved to go, I really want to get ahold of some mice there, but it would take too long to go by train/car and I can't be away from school. No mousies for me

Well when is it? I am moving to London so.. maybe.
Does it have any kind of website or somthing?
I have rabbits so what in it for them?

#42 Show is 6th of September!!! Soon!!!

How is it going zamwyn? Tickets to UK booked yet?

Only just read this, so there is a ferry from Gothenburg still going at all? Thats nice, I thought they removed most if not all ferries over to the UK. This was the reason a band of gerbil breeders went all the way to denmark through many countries just to get to the UK by car. Needless to say they were very tired when they got home :)

But were is Samwyn? i have not seen her for a long time now, not here in Bollnäs and not here on Mus I Fokus?

About ferri. Is it only possible to take mice in a car? Can´t you just have them in your handbagage? Car deck is awful, bad air (exhaust) and I think animals can be posion there. 24 h alone is not such a great fuss, but posion is…

When you go by cruising ship from Stockholm to Helsingfors it´s no problem bringing mice in handbagage. There´s usually no checking handbags.

Should be possible to take them as hand luggage on the ferry, after all dogs are allowed in the public area onboard? Boxes are usually in a bag of sorts so its not that they are obvious to the eye either.

We have left our mice in the car on the car deck to Turku now many times. The first times we brought them up into the cabin for the night but little by little we have changed our way. We leave all 4 car windows 1 cm open to allow air to circulate. Of course, there is a risk - and we have decided to take it. 

We suddenly ran into a problem last winter when we went on the Seawind ferry - our car was placed on a deck which was open to the outside cold -20° night temperature. So we had to carry everything into the cabin - unplanned. But we didn´t even then have any comment from the crew.

In case you're interested, here's a report on the trip back and forth and the visit to the show itself. No photos unfortunately, I took some, but it wasn't my camera and I don't have them now, so…

We started our journey by car from Gothenburg, where we took the ferry to Denmark/Fredrikshavn. The boat trip itself took about 3 hours. After that we drove through Denmark and Germany to Hoek van Holland. That took about 11 hours straight, with just 2 short toilet breaks. We were supposed to take the ferry from Hoek van Holland to Harwich, but the shipping company had given us the wrong departure time so we missed the boat by many hours and had to spend the night at a hotel in Rotterdam, about 20 km from the ferry terminal. The next ferry didn't leave until 2 pm the next day, and the trip took about 6 hours. From Harwich to London (Liverpool Street station) there was a 2 hour train ride. We had a booking at a hotel in Paddington, and got a hold of a taxi cab that took us there.

It was a budget hotel, and thank goodness it was cheap at least, because it sure wasn't comfortable. I guess we got what we paid for though. London is expensive. The best thing about it was it's location. The underground station as well as the train station was only a 5 minute walk away, and from there we could take the train directly to Reading, where the show was held. Because we missed the ferry from Holland, we had only 1 full day in London, as we were to start our journey back right after the show.

Reading is just 30 min by train from Paddington, and then a 5 min drive from the station to the leisure center where the show was held. There were 2 halls full; 1 for the rabbits (which seemed to be the main thing) and 1 for all the other small furries. There were cavies (the 2nd big thing to rabbits, it seemed), rats, mice and hamsters. Some fowl and chickens as well, but only as displays. I was quite dissapointed with the mouse section, to be honest. Perhaps there were more on Sunday (we were there on Saturday), but it seemed to be a very humble number of mice there. What surprised me the most was how small they were! I'm the first to admit I'm far, FAR from being an expert, but to me they looked like the swe/eng crosses we have in Sweden, not like the traditional big show type I was expecting. There was no auction held while I was there, and the 2 people I asked about it knew nothing about one supposed to be held. I saw only 1 pew, a very small female, and there were no for sale mice at all. I did get to have a nice chat with a gentleman about genetics (he was a professor teaching genetics, btw), and he told me that to the best of his knowledge they don't have the recessive yellows within the UK mouse fancy. It was a real let down not to be able to bring back a single mouse, especially since I'd been forced to pay 500 SEK for an import license as they've changed the maximum number of pets to bring back without to 5. It used to be 10 until just recently.

I had better luck with the hamsters, as they were all pre-booked. What was really fantastic was all the pet supplies for sale at a price far lower than what things cost in Sweden. Cages seem to be just as expensive most of the time, but pet food, toys, water bottles, houses etc were really, really cheap, and there were lots of it to choose from! I had very little extra money to spend on shopping (didn't buy a single thing for myself in London), but I did get a pack of 20 water bottles (hamster size) for £10 total, a very cute pink elephant for the mice (although in the picture below it's a hamster showing it off…) and a cardboard play pen in the form of a castle.

On our way back, we had told the shipping company we were bringing small pets already when we booked, and the staff were all very helpful and nice. They had a special kennel were the hamsters were supposed to travel, but as it was an overnight trip with mandatory cabin reservations, no one was using the locked luggage room so they suggested I put them there instead. I was encouraged to come check on them whenever I wanted, and although it was a bit hot in there, it wasn't too bad and the hamsters got along fine. Then from Holland it was time to get back into the car (we left it there before taking the ferry to Harwich, as my father didn't want to deal with London traffic). Again it took around 11 hours to drive from Hoek van Holland to Fredrikshavn. We ate in the car, and only stopped for toilet breaks. On the ferry from Denmark to Gothenburg we had to leave the hamsters in the car, and even if it was just 3 hours, I didn't like it. We got home alright in the end though, and the hamsters were fine. They had food access all the time, and regularly got fresh pieces of cuecumber and apple for fluids.

I think I probably could've smuggled at least 2 pet carriers onboard the ferries (above car deck, into the cabin or something), so if I hadn't brought back as many as I did, it would have been a lot easier and better for the animals. I wouldn't want to illegally bring pets into any country, but as for transportation regulations, I don't give a crap if I break them unless I get busted, really. The show was excellent in all aspects except the dissapointment with the mice, but the trip itself was horrible. Exhausting and fairly boring, and I wouldn't do it again. Next time I'm importing any pets from England, I'll only bring 1-3 and take another route. And go with someone who is also fond of small furries!!

Thankyou for your report! Maybe - one day.  Did you collect any contact information to mice breeders?

#50 I didn't, no. But I know there are a few whom has web sites.