slowmotion
Quite dreadful
- Location
- lost somewhere
You can't lose your passport, can you? I mean, you keep it close, don't you.....?
I went on a long weekend trip to Amsterdam last week. The plan was: take the overnight Harwich-Hook Stena ferry on Wednesday night, ride to Amsterdam on Thursday, stay with friends in central Amsterdam until Sunday, put the bike on the train back to the Hook, catch the ferry on Sunday night and go home. Great plan.
I rode off the ferry ramp on Thursday morning and waved my passport at the Dutch immigration people. The passport was in a ziplock freezer bag with my ferry ticket and parking ticket at Harwich. Not wishing to hold people up in cars behind me, I stuffed it into a zip pocket in my baggy cycling shorts, rather than stashing it in my panniers. Some Euros, brought from England were in one or other of the four pockets . My maps were in the back pocket of my jersey.
It was a great pootle up the LF1 and then the LF20. The wind was gentle and the sun shone for most of the way. I stopped at Katjwick (?) for a coffee, gulped a couple of bananas somewhere near Zandvoort, and got lost somewhere a couple of times near Amsterdam, but arrived at the Kaizersgracht at about 4 pm. Friday and Saturday were spent riding about on Dutch bikes and having fun.
At noon on Sunday, I thought I would check the ferry time to return home that evening, and couldn't find the ticket. Upturned panniers, upturned bedroom, upturned house. We had no luck, and had to concede defeat. My passport and tickets were lost.
The British Consulate website in Amsterdam said it would be available if emergency travel was required the same day. "Ring on the bell". I didn't hold out much hope for that on a Sunday lunchtime, so we went to the local Dutch police station to file a report of the loss of a passport. The police said that we needed a passport number before they could file. We didn't have one at that time. We rode to the Consulate anyway. The " Grey They" didn't answer the bell. I was not entirely surprised, but my Dutch friend was.
Back at my friends' house, I phoned home and asked my wife to search through My Pictures for a jpeg of my passport that I had taken, as a close-up experiment, when I first bought my camera. By some kind of miracle, and despite my chaotic filing system, a clear image came back. We went back to the police station, made a lost passport report to the Dutch police, and came away with a couple of typed sheets of A4 in Dutch. The police were wonderful.
My Dutch friends called Stena Ferries and asked what the deal was for someone without a passport. They said that there was absolutely no way that they would allow such a person to travel without official documentation. They were happy to re-book my ferry ticket for 24 hours later, without charge, but I had to have a passport or official document from the Consulate. Stena gave a reference number over the phone for the new booking. All I had to do was give them that number at the dock on the Hook.
The total time from realising that I had lost the gear to getting to this stage was about four hours. The Police station was about five minutes on the bike. The British Consulate was about 12 minutes away. My friends could ask all the right questions in their native tongue. I was very lucky.
Monday morning found me outside the British Consulate at 8:30 am. It opens at nine, but I was getting eager. I had the police report, a jpeg of my mugshot on my passport, and also a completed application form for emergency travel documents that my Dutch friends had downloaded from the Foreign Office website. A charming lady helped when the doors opened. She could issue me with an emergency passport if I came back at about 11:am. It would be good for one journey to England and would expire within 24 hours and then be worthless. All I had to do was pay 113 Euros ( about £100) , and they only take cash, no plastic. She gave directions to the nearest cash machine, offered some sympathy, and was delightful. I rode around Amsterdam wasting time and having fun until I picked up a strange white passport from their office at about 11 am.
I went back to my friends' house. They had been trying to contact me to report that they had had a phone call from the Kajwick police to say that my passport and other documents had been found and handed in by a public-spirited person. Alas, too late...my original passport was cancelled and now worthless. I was happy to have an excuse to stay another day with friends.
On Monday, I took the ferry back to Harwich. Some people were very kind when I got there.
It was a fantastic trip and losing my passport took only five hours out of a much longer holiday. Go to Holland.....but do yourself a favour....buy a bar bag.
BTW, I have to buy a new passport as well. How much do they cost???
I went on a long weekend trip to Amsterdam last week. The plan was: take the overnight Harwich-Hook Stena ferry on Wednesday night, ride to Amsterdam on Thursday, stay with friends in central Amsterdam until Sunday, put the bike on the train back to the Hook, catch the ferry on Sunday night and go home. Great plan.
I rode off the ferry ramp on Thursday morning and waved my passport at the Dutch immigration people. The passport was in a ziplock freezer bag with my ferry ticket and parking ticket at Harwich. Not wishing to hold people up in cars behind me, I stuffed it into a zip pocket in my baggy cycling shorts, rather than stashing it in my panniers. Some Euros, brought from England were in one or other of the four pockets . My maps were in the back pocket of my jersey.
It was a great pootle up the LF1 and then the LF20. The wind was gentle and the sun shone for most of the way. I stopped at Katjwick (?) for a coffee, gulped a couple of bananas somewhere near Zandvoort, and got lost somewhere a couple of times near Amsterdam, but arrived at the Kaizersgracht at about 4 pm. Friday and Saturday were spent riding about on Dutch bikes and having fun.
At noon on Sunday, I thought I would check the ferry time to return home that evening, and couldn't find the ticket. Upturned panniers, upturned bedroom, upturned house. We had no luck, and had to concede defeat. My passport and tickets were lost.
The British Consulate website in Amsterdam said it would be available if emergency travel was required the same day. "Ring on the bell". I didn't hold out much hope for that on a Sunday lunchtime, so we went to the local Dutch police station to file a report of the loss of a passport. The police said that we needed a passport number before they could file. We didn't have one at that time. We rode to the Consulate anyway. The " Grey They" didn't answer the bell. I was not entirely surprised, but my Dutch friend was.
Back at my friends' house, I phoned home and asked my wife to search through My Pictures for a jpeg of my passport that I had taken, as a close-up experiment, when I first bought my camera. By some kind of miracle, and despite my chaotic filing system, a clear image came back. We went back to the police station, made a lost passport report to the Dutch police, and came away with a couple of typed sheets of A4 in Dutch. The police were wonderful.
My Dutch friends called Stena Ferries and asked what the deal was for someone without a passport. They said that there was absolutely no way that they would allow such a person to travel without official documentation. They were happy to re-book my ferry ticket for 24 hours later, without charge, but I had to have a passport or official document from the Consulate. Stena gave a reference number over the phone for the new booking. All I had to do was give them that number at the dock on the Hook.
The total time from realising that I had lost the gear to getting to this stage was about four hours. The Police station was about five minutes on the bike. The British Consulate was about 12 minutes away. My friends could ask all the right questions in their native tongue. I was very lucky.
Monday morning found me outside the British Consulate at 8:30 am. It opens at nine, but I was getting eager. I had the police report, a jpeg of my mugshot on my passport, and also a completed application form for emergency travel documents that my Dutch friends had downloaded from the Foreign Office website. A charming lady helped when the doors opened. She could issue me with an emergency passport if I came back at about 11:am. It would be good for one journey to England and would expire within 24 hours and then be worthless. All I had to do was pay 113 Euros ( about £100) , and they only take cash, no plastic. She gave directions to the nearest cash machine, offered some sympathy, and was delightful. I rode around Amsterdam wasting time and having fun until I picked up a strange white passport from their office at about 11 am.
I went back to my friends' house. They had been trying to contact me to report that they had had a phone call from the Kajwick police to say that my passport and other documents had been found and handed in by a public-spirited person. Alas, too late...my original passport was cancelled and now worthless. I was happy to have an excuse to stay another day with friends.
On Monday, I took the ferry back to Harwich. Some people were very kind when I got there.
It was a fantastic trip and losing my passport took only five hours out of a much longer holiday. Go to Holland.....but do yourself a favour....buy a bar bag.
BTW, I have to buy a new passport as well. How much do they cost???
