At the Pet Stops, teams have a mandatory 12-hour rest period in which they can eat, sleep, and mingle with other racers.

“Koko paint. Koko love paint. Koko love little horses, All Ball dogs, cats. Koko not love big fat mouth. Koko love big mouse. Koko love Dutch cocoa. Koko love race.”

Hercules and Maxx, who arrived at the Pet Stop first, are the first to leave. Their first clue is a Detour.

A Detour is a choice between two tasks, each with its own pros and cons.

This Detour is modeled after two famous stories set in the Netherlands. In “Hans Brinker,” teams must travel by trolley to the Jaap Eden Hall ice rink, where they will have to complete two laps around the rink. It’s a long way to the rink, but the task is not difficult, especially for those with hooves and claws.

In “Little Dutch Boy,” teams must fill up a giant container in the back of the Rijksmuseum with canal water until it starts to leak out a hole in the side, when teams must plug up the hole. There’s less travel involved, but the task is more difficult.

The New Amsterdam – I mean, New York police dogs decide to do Hans Brinker, and get on the trolley where they are mistaken for Belgian Malinois. The cat and dog pairs, the donkeys, and of course Burgess and Meredith follow them, but the alpacas, bulls, and hippos decide on the Little Dutch Boy option.

When the groups arrive at the Jaap Eden Hall rink, they find out it won’t open until 9 AM – that every team has to go in at the same time!

Burgess and Meredith are naturals at this task, sliding around the rink on their bellies. Hercules, Maxx, Bella, Stravinsky, and Zhivago use their claws to dig in, but the de-clawed Douglas has some trouble. The Cuban pets are not used to ice and move slowly as the penguins lap them on the way to finishing first.

Back at the Rijksmuseum, Ernesto and Fermin have jumped out to a lead in Little Dutch Boy as they are able to hang multiple water buckets from their horns.

Bela tries to scare the peaceful alpaca Geraldo, but Ernesto snorts at him and Bela backs off.

Burgess and Meredith, having finished their skating task first, receive their next clue: fly to Shannon, Ireland, and take a marked taxi to the Dartfield Irish Horse Museum.

As the Racers come into Schiphol Airport to make their reservations, several tourists do double-takes, thinking they may have indulged a little too much in Amsterdam. All Race teams get on the same flight, and upon landing in Ireland rush over to their marked taxis, Victoria pushing Bella out of the way.

Monty and Holly are nervous, as they think people in Ireland won’t like them because of their owner, but their cab driver is a British expatriate and takes them on a shortcut to the Museum.

Monty and Holly are the first to arrive at the Museum and they receive their next clue, a Road Block.

A Road Block is a task that only one team member may perform.

In this Road Block, one team member must search this Irish clover field and find one of eleven four-leafed clovers.

Holly and Douglas start looking right away, but it’s lucky Meredith who finds a shamrock on the first try and waddles over with the clover in her beak. She receives instructions: to take the marked taxi to Ballynahinch Castle, the Pet Stop for the night.

The field is full of Racers looking for four-leafed clovers. Celia, nosing around, finds Alejandrito walking along the perimeter of the field and she and Desi race the penguins to the Pet Stop, where they are met by Bono of U2 and a Connemara Pony.

“Welcome to Ireland! Burgess and Meredith, you’re Team Number One. You’ve won a trip to Ireland, which you can enjoy after the race. Desi and Celia, and your little friend, you are Team Number Two! And here come Ibrahim and Omara, you are Team Number Three! One, two, tres, catorce, here are Monty and Holly who are Team Number Four!”

While all is well at the Pet Stop, Bonita the Peruvian alpaca is having a terrible time with the Road Block. She looks and looks, but just can’t find a clover. One by one, the other Racers leave, until she is the last one left in the field. Finally, four hours after Stravinsky and Zhivago checked in, Bonita and Geraldo arrive at the Pet Stop only to hear, “I’m sorry to hear you’ll have to pack it in from the Amanxing Race.”