Europe crossing

[GeekOKent]

Came over to France ( en route to Brno ) last evening. Took over 3 hrs at the French side, got stopped twice!

I am used to some level of security and checking but this was pretty thorough. Twice.

Weve alao been told to expect this at a couple more border crossings, specially into Germany and Austria. Not used to this. Hopefully not going to turn into a huge pain.

 

[Chas]

I presume this is because of the immigrant crisis, what do they actually check at these stops?

 

[Ian Chuter]

I think it's more to do with terrorism. I went to Germany before Christmas and all traffic got pulled of the motorway/autobahn at a junction, round a roundabout then back onto the road near the boarders of France/Belgium/Holland/Germany and the same on the way back. I can understand it but it annoyingly added a few hours to the journey and we missed the ferry on the way back

 

[Chas]

I think it's more to do with terrorism.

Of course, I should have realised that.

 

[silvercruiser]

I do think it is necessary at the moment. And thanks for letting us know GOK. When i go across in May i will allow a few more hours for travel.

 

[StarCruiser]

We had it going from France into Belgium early December. Just that, off the A16, round a roundabout and back on. On the way we took a parallel road as the A16 was at a standstill and they had a checkpoint set up about 100-200m inside France.

 

[clivehorridge]

Queueing for the ferry from France...

Honest, guv.... We've only a couple of bottles of sherry on board for our wives....

 

[GeekOKent]

A bit of everything really. Check at french side and german side was mostly paperwork and they were calling in passport number and details for someone 'backoffice' to check.

The Austrian crossing was a bit more intense. Shopped just short of a body strip search ( they got us down to jeans and shirts, then did the metal scan waveabout thinggymajig ). Poked around the engine bay, under vehicle, all bags were opened, seats checked for cavities, vehicle + us checked for the chemical scan thing they do at the airports.

Let me put it this way: we felt very reassured that we were not upto nogood.

 

[GeekOKent]

My colleague points out that maybe it was the large number of electronics, all in a well used state, that may have caused some of this attention. But I am not convinced, it certainly looked as if they stopped with intent ( and many other people in the area were undergoing the same treatment ).

 

[StarCruiser]

I suppose it's always good to be reassured that one is not up to no good. [emoji6] The trouble is, what started out as a refugee crisis is now clearly not (or not only anyway). I wish you luck KB.

 

[froggy Steve]

I would rather they have checks at all borders than not - if it takes an extra couple of hours, so be it.

 

[GeekOKent]

I suppose it's always good to be reassured that one is not up to no good. [emoji6] The trouble is, what started out as a refugee crisis is now clearly not (or not only anyway). I wish you luck KB.

Thanks. Return journey starts on Friday!

 

[MarkW]

Queueing for the ferry from France...

Honest, guv.... We've only a couple of bottles of sherry on board for our wives....

View attachment 24220

ooo nice 70 ute 2 from the right

 

[clivehorridge]

ooo nice 70 ute 2 from the right

Yep, that's the one with the sherry in it...

 

[MarkW]

Those aux tanks are great [emoji3]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[frank rabbets]

I don't think anyone will stop them for having no road tax, insurance or MOT and being on the phone while shooting out of the window .

 

[clivehorridge]

I don't think anyone will stop them for having no road tax, insurance or MOT and being on the phone while shooting out of the window .

Let's hope they all wear their seat belts...

 

[GeekOKent]

Its been a bit easier on the way back. Currently in Brussels, depending on beer supply we should be back in the UK later today.