It was my sister-in-law's 50th birthday bash last Saturday. On Tuesday I finally got around to checking in for our flights and entering the API. Only to discover one of my daughter's British passport had expired. Called the local Swiss passport office (as she is Swiss) and they said they couldn't do it in time, so we should go to the airport and get a temporary one. Got there at 6pm - and by 6:30 we had a new temporary passport. And I was about £120 lighter...
Where I live, Thursday was a public holiday, so I'd booked Friday off and we planned to fly on the Thursday. At 2:10 on Thursday afternoon, I checked the airport arrivals to see if the the inbound flight was delayed. It turned out that the it wasn't but the outbound flight was cancelled. (I got an email about it at 2:30). So I cancelled both legs and requested a refund. Then we got in the car, filled it with fuel (good job I'm rich from my contracting days) and drove to Calais - 7 hours. Fortunately we have three drivers in the family. Booked a Eurotunnel ticket while sitting in the back of the car, uploaded the API and our covid certificates (apparently still required UK->France). Got to our accomodation about 11:30. Our return journey was thankfully quite uneventful.
Not so for my son and his wife. They had chosen to drive, but stay over in Calais in an airbnb for both legs. It took them over four hours on Sunday to get 500m to the port at Dover so they could board the ferry. Arrived in Calais too late to check in (at about 10pm), so they drove home through the night. Two drivers. I was quite impressed really - I've never done an overnight drive.
Got the EasyJet refund, and it turned out it was more than out expenses. Which was nice. Plus we were able to bring back teabags and marmite. Sadly, due to the UK not being in the EU, we couldn't bring back any bacon, sausages, cheese (that's the really sad one), pork scratchings, nor gravy granules.
cue: cool story bro'.
Where I live, Thursday was a public holiday, so I'd booked Friday off and we planned to fly on the Thursday. At 2:10 on Thursday afternoon, I checked the airport arrivals to see if the the inbound flight was delayed. It turned out that the it wasn't but the outbound flight was cancelled. (I got an email about it at 2:30). So I cancelled both legs and requested a refund. Then we got in the car, filled it with fuel (good job I'm rich from my contracting days) and drove to Calais - 7 hours. Fortunately we have three drivers in the family. Booked a Eurotunnel ticket while sitting in the back of the car, uploaded the API and our covid certificates (apparently still required UK->France). Got to our accomodation about 11:30. Our return journey was thankfully quite uneventful.
Not so for my son and his wife. They had chosen to drive, but stay over in Calais in an airbnb for both legs. It took them over four hours on Sunday to get 500m to the port at Dover so they could board the ferry. Arrived in Calais too late to check in (at about 10pm), so they drove home through the night. Two drivers. I was quite impressed really - I've never done an overnight drive.
Got the EasyJet refund, and it turned out it was more than out expenses. Which was nice. Plus we were able to bring back teabags and marmite. Sadly, due to the UK not being in the EU, we couldn't bring back any bacon, sausages, cheese (that's the really sad one), pork scratchings, nor gravy granules.
cue: cool story bro'.
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