ladytruenorth (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} ladytruenorth) wrote,@ 2005-07-13 10:01:00 |
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Brittany Ferries or Landing Card? What Landing Card?
'The further you are from England, the nearer you are to France'
It was a beautiful start to the May 1st Bank Holiday weekend.
Four of us were going to Brittany for four days - two gents from the UK and a lovely Irish woman with yours truly, the lone Canadian.
I was looking forward to it - a twelve hour trip from Portsmouth UK to St Malo Brittany on board one of the Brittany Ferries.
Right..up we come to the window to hand in our reservation sheet - and the lady in the booth says
'Passports please'.
We hand them over: two EU passports, one Irish, one Canadian.
They are quickly scanned then handed back and we are waved on.
Wow..I thought to myself..that was easy.
Too easy it turns out.
On the return, we drive off the Ferry at Portsmouth, again hand over our passports.
CONSTERNATION!
There is a duckling among the swans!
That damn Canadian passport - what to do ?
We are at the booth, there is a line up of cars behind us coming off the ferry, and we are holding things up.
Male UK Passport official to the group: waving my passport and saying 'whose passport is this?"
"Mine"I answer from the front seat.
"Where is your landing card?"
"Pardon?"
"L*A*N*D*I*N*G Card?"
"I handed that in at Heathrow Airport when I *L*A*N*D*E*D"
Now even more CONSTERNATION ensues.
My passport is whisked away back to the booth and then a landing card is thrust at me.
"Here, fill this out"
"OK" I say and dutifully fill it out.
Meanwhile the cars are piling up behind us.
A few minutes later a rather apologetic female passport control officer comes up to the vehicle with my passport in hand and hands it back to me saying,
"Sorry for the delay, we couldn't find the entry stamp!"
Apparently I am a first for the books.
They are so used to EU and UK passport holders going back and forth that it never occured to them that another National might want to travel with a group of UK and Irish friends to visit Brittany via their wonderful Ferries!
So now I know.
Word to the wise: if you are going to travel on from the UK to rest of Europe, make sure to grab a bunch of landing cards at Heathrow just in case you run up against this ridiculous and outdated piece of bureaucratic machinery.
'The further you are from England, the nearer you are to France'
It was a beautiful start to the May 1st Bank Holiday weekend.
Four of us were going to Brittany for four days - two gents from the UK and a lovely Irish woman with yours truly, the lone Canadian.
I was looking forward to it - a twelve hour trip from Portsmouth UK to St Malo Brittany on board one of the Brittany Ferries.
Right..up we come to the window to hand in our reservation sheet - and the lady in the booth says
'Passports please'.
We hand them over: two EU passports, one Irish, one Canadian.
They are quickly scanned then handed back and we are waved on.
Wow..I thought to myself..that was easy.
Too easy it turns out.
On the return, we drive off the Ferry at Portsmouth, again hand over our passports.
CONSTERNATION!
There is a duckling among the swans!
That damn Canadian passport - what to do ?
We are at the booth, there is a line up of cars behind us coming off the ferry, and we are holding things up.
Male UK Passport official to the group: waving my passport and saying 'whose passport is this?"
"Mine"I answer from the front seat.
"Where is your landing card?"
"Pardon?"
"L*A*N*D*I*N*G Card?"
"I handed that in at Heathrow Airport when I *L*A*N*D*E*D"
Now even more CONSTERNATION ensues.
My passport is whisked away back to the booth and then a landing card is thrust at me.
"Here, fill this out"
"OK" I say and dutifully fill it out.
Meanwhile the cars are piling up behind us.
A few minutes later a rather apologetic female passport control officer comes up to the vehicle with my passport in hand and hands it back to me saying,
"Sorry for the delay, we couldn't find the entry stamp!"
Apparently I am a first for the books.
They are so used to EU and UK passport holders going back and forth that it never occured to them that another National might want to travel with a group of UK and Irish friends to visit Brittany via their wonderful Ferries!
So now I know.
Word to the wise: if you are going to travel on from the UK to rest of Europe, make sure to grab a bunch of landing cards at Heathrow just in case you run up against this ridiculous and outdated piece of bureaucratic machinery.
