I have just returned to London after spending the holidays in Belgium and Holland. Due to the nature of the trip, I opted to drive rather than fly.

I found the experience of the Dover-Calais ferry crossing to be a complete eye-opener in terms of security, compared to flying.

Both Mrs Mee and I are non-EU citizens living in the UK. On arrival at the port of dover, we were waved through both British and French passport control. We then arrived at the check-in counter, where I presented a print-out of our booking. We were handed a tag to hang on the rear-view mirror, and directed to the vessel, and boarded after a short wait.

Note: so far no-one had looked at our passports, or inspected our car or luggage! (And the vessel can hold 700 vehicles and 2000 people)

On the return crossing, we were again waved through French passport control, but were stopped by the British. We were also briefly stopped at customs / security before boarding, but all they did was glance in our boot.

What I cant figure out is whether we were lucky, or whether (compared to airlines) the security is extremely lax, making these ferries a target, considering that one car-bomb on board could risk the lives of 2000 people...

-- Mike

Ferries are one of millions of alternate targets terrorists have. That's why the whole flight security thing is so ridiculous -- no terror group that decides, "OK, we are going to plan and execute an operation that kills at least 1000 and we have a budget of x" is going to say, "gosh darn it, those TSA agents have foiled us again! Let's go home and open an ice cream parlour instead!" Of course not. Instead, you bomb an underground station (London), a railway station (Madrid), a wedding (Amman), or, why not? a ferry. Or a shopping mall or a stadium or a cinema or whatever. The last thing any terrorist is worried about is finding a decent target -- that's the easy part. That's why airport security is nonsense --in fact, it's irresponsible, by making the air transportation system off limits, it shifts attacks on to other transport modes, making them more dangerous.

Do you normally need a stamp in your passport when entering?

When my wife entered on her Canadian passport, she had to present herself to the immigration officer who then stamped it, even if he at first attempted to wave us through.

Interesting question - to which I have no idea of the answer. I need a Schengen visa to travel within the mainland EU, but whether this means I need a stamp in my passport, I don't know -- is it my responsibility to present myself, or theirs to check me?

Still, the fact that there was neither an entry nor exit check by french officials, I found surprising

-- Mike

mee, what is your nationality? Are you South African?

Earlier this year, the FBI was soliciting the public for information regarding 2 men who seemed to be scoping out ferries around Seattle.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...erries22m.html