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Why, oh why, oh why..........


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...........is Dover SOOOOOOO unwelcoming?

You get off the Shuttle and drive straight onto a motorway.

You get off the only ferry docking at Dover and queue for 20 minutes to go from 4 lanes into two and through that horrid shed with customs people standing around giving you hard stares.......even though you were checked by UK immigration at Calais.

What's it all about? And why aren't the ferry companies kicking off? I'm sure it must put people off travelling through Dover?

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The Ferries are at Dover and you can go straight onto the A2 at the docks if you want just keep left out of the gate, the M2 and M20 end up in more or less the same place, Sidcup and less than a mile apart when they get to the M25.

The Shuttle is actually at Folkestone, well Cheriton to be precise and you drive out straight onto the M20, it is at least 17 kms from Dover.

I must agree with the OP about "Fortress Britain" as we call it, it took 50 minutes one night to get from the Ferry to the exit because a boat on a trailer was blocking one lane, too hard to open another exit, not enough scowling coppers to put on it probably[:D], a lot of cars just left the queue and used the lorry exit and were not stopped.  As you have already been checked at Calais why the second checks at Dover?  Well it gives Kent Police something to do, they have their "best dirty look PCs" on duty, and because customs can do thorough checks in their time and not disrupt the Ferries.

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Hi

Its not only Dover we recently came back by ferry to Portsmouth, we had come up from Issigac, six hours driving, then 5 hours across on ferry, 30 minutes to get off the ferry, then into the system, through passport control, then a woman customs officer stopped a French car in front of me, did not pull him over out of the line, an stood and talked to he for some 10 mins, why did she not pull him of of the line, crazy.

I have always said it is harder to get back into our own country, I have flown in from Pakistan where I we working, to heather row, 3 jumbos in at the same time, one person checking the passsports.

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I have never figured out how come it is possible to do all the customs checks for both countries on the embarkation side for the tunnel, but not for the ships.  When will they figure out how to do this?  Dover is hateful enough without having to queue in the harbour for ages just to be allowed in.

However, I see from another thread that there are going to be major improvements done to the Dover approaches - it will be a nightmare while they're doing it but, boy, does something need to be done.

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Fully agree with all the other postings. We spent one particularly unpleasant wait on the Eastern docks at Dover parked next to a coachload of students going to a beer festival in Germany. It looked like they were taking all the beer over with them! However the real problem was the fact that the coachdriver insisted on keeping the engine running to power the air con with the usual exhaust fumes belching out in our direction. We politely asked him to turn the engine off but got the usual reaction. "Can't do that mate, they would all suffocate". Poor mites. The fact that most of the students were stood outside the coach drinking and smoking seemed not to have registered.  It's not the only time we have witnessed this blatant waste of fuel.

Peter 

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Well this time, at customs, being almost last off the ship, I must have looked extremely annoyed by the time I arrived at the checkpoint. I'd been on the road since 0800, and it was, by that time, 1650 UK time, so I was a bit ragged.

Anyway, what did I get?

A cursory knock on my window, and, "Where have you been?"

I'm not sure the official appreciated my reply, "Well the ferry just got in from France, so take a guess?"

Bloomin' jobsworths.

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Like it!

I had similar but on the way out from the UK via the tunnel.  At the 'security' point. rent-a-thug  says

 'Where you goin' to?'

'France' says I,

'Wot? all of it?' (sneer sneer)

'Yes, topographically speaking I don't think you can visit part  of a country'

Ah, little victories .........

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[quote user="cooperlola"]

Soh failure is a pre-requisite for personel at border crossings.  What is it with the "are you carrying any firearms" bit.  Like I'm going to tell them if I'm smuggling a boot full of Uzis...

[/quote]

[:D][:D][:D]

I think a uniform and peaked hat gives them an overbearing air of authority - the 'jobsworth' mentality!

Reminds us of a trip to the US, when being fascinated in a gun shop, we got chatting to the owner, who told us that the requirements of a licence was to fill in a form which asked such questions as:

Are you an illegal immigrant?

Do you intend to commit any criminal activity with this weapon?

To which he was often astonished that some people actually ticked the boxes to confirm???????????????[:-))]

When we got to the California/Arizona border, and was stopped by a very bullish, heavily armed border guard, in body armour, we expected the drugs/arms/ammo questions, yet was asked "Are you carrying any fruit, such as tomatoes or anything...[8-)] (looking for the California fruit-fly apparently!)

Clearly far more dangerous than your average, armed illegal immigrant, intent on furthering their cross-border criminal activities!

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Hi

I just remembered another incident, arriving at Newhaven for the morning ferry to France in my MGB GT, we got pulled over and asked where we were going, then I was asked if I had any thing that could cause anyone any harm, the first thing I thought of was, and I replied to the lady: got a couple of tins of baked beans:, I think I must have caught her on the hop as for a moment she did not answer, then said thank you sir very good. what a load of toffee an old car with a load of spares on board, come on.

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Warning,long post!

Coming back from France via the tunnel one time ,we were asked if we would participate in a sniffer dog experiment.We had "explosives" wedged in our door and they then brought out the sniffer dog.After three passes and no sign of the dog getting it, his handler pointed at our door and the dog duly obliged to find the "bomb".Surely it would have been easier for the highly trained sniffer man to find the bomb !Bit scary none the less as I wasn't sure how the dog would react once it found the stuff so I kept my window wound up in case it tried to drag me out of the car.

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That is how you train a sniffer dog.

He certainly could smell it and had previously been given some as a "toy" to play with[:-))]

The game continues with him being rewarded when he finds his toy, your experience was at the stage of the game when he knows from the handlers tone of voice that it is a game and he will be rewarded if he does/finds the right thing, he just needed pointing in the right direction.

Editted

It would be no game for you if the next time you take le shuttle they decide to search your car with an electronic or canine sniffer!

 

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We once looked after a 'retired' sniffer dog. The quote marks are because nobody ever told him.

Not a popular house guest we found with certain friends of the younger generation. Also he had a disconcerting habit of targeting folk walking on Putney Common.

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Portsmouth immigration (or whatever they are) do sometimes have a sense of humour.

On arrival at Portsmouth a few months ago, I was asked where I would be driving on to. Wiltshire, I said.

"Where will you be staying?" he asked. "With my mother and father" I said, in a tone of deep depression. [6]

The immigration officer burst out laughing and said "You're not here for a holiday, then." [:P]

When I travelled back last week - to Portsmouth - on arrival I greeted the guys in the booth with my normal cheery "Good afternoon" - they all stared, smiled back and said words to the effect of: first time we've had more than a grunt all day.

I do think that we frequently get back the attitude we give off. [;-)]

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[quote user="Catalpa"]

I do think that we frequently get back the attitude we give off. [;-)]

[/quote]

As do they. And whose fault is it if a shipload of tired travellers are held up for ages to file through a nasty, dark shed with signs all over about cat's claws and bumps everywhere, get a bit fed up?

I've even had it going out:

Passport control: where are you going?

Me: France

Passport control: Where in france?

Me: France.

Passport control: I ask again, where in France?

Me: Why is that anyone's business but mine?

Passport control: How much money are you carrying?

Me: Sorry? Why is THAT your business?

Passport control: Because it is. How much ARE you carrying?

Me: What gives you the right to ask questions like that?

Passport control: I'm an officer of Her Majesty's Customs and Excise. That's what.

Me: Well last time I looked, I wasn't living in a Police State. Goodbye. (Drives off).

Sorry, but it revs me up.

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We were stopped coming out of Spain at the border in the South west of France and asked where we'd been.

Unless we wanted to spend the rest of the afternoon there it was pretty obvious the answer wasn't Spain.

Those Portsmouth guys are just pussycats compared to Spanish customs.

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I would suggest being polite and getting it over with as quickly as possible. As said, they have it in their power to make your life pretty miserable.

Last time I went through the Rosyth ferry port, I was early for the boat so was chatting to the guy who was searching my car. I asked him why there was a large toolbox and tyre fitting equipment etc at the side of the inspection shed...

"well, if we suspect you are hiding something, we could take your car over there and take it completely to bits, including removing tyres from the wheels to look inside them."

I can just picture some jobsworth taking delight in doing that sort of thing to anyone who gave him lip.

 

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