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Published: December 9th 2006
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The last medieval Cathedral in England
The Bath Abbey - just beautiful. Look at all the angles as they climb up the ladders to God. I wonder why they don't just fly? We had been planning our trip to Tuscany for ages. Moving to the UK to travel and then being held back from going overseas had been so frustrating. So a trip to Tuscany was well overdue - and just what the Doctor ordered.
Well if you haven’t’ yet heard the sordid story I’d better take a step back. As you probably know I have an EU passport. Through me, Brendon can gain EU residency. Before leaving home he applied & got an EEA spousal visa. The final step to his EU residency was simple - or so we were told - just send in our passports to the UK Home Office within six months of arriving in the UK & he’d get a nice rubber stamp.
Hah! Have you seen the state of the public service over here? Easy? I think not.
After returning form Rachel and Lars’ fairytale wedding in Germany wedding on 3rd June, Brendon immediately sent in his passport, my passport & a tonne of supporting documentation. Shortly afterwards he received a letter confirming receipt of the application on 6th June. Great, they were so prompt, things were going well. After all, it only took
A Roman Bath anyone?
At nearly 2,000 years old (although people used the hot springs well before the Romans) this si the oldest Bath I've been to - an dthe name for the town. Alison (my sister in law) two weeks to get hers when she applied a couple of years ago. This would work well as it was our TEN year anniversary on 7th July - and we were keen to celebrate with a romantic weekend in Paris.
Unfortunately our romantic Pairs trip was not to be - as come August we still hadn’t heard anything. We had been patient - two months for crying out loud! Brendon called up and asked where our passports were. We were informed that they were being processed, there were no problems or issues, but they couldn’t tell us how long our passports would take to be processed. When Brendon pressed they advised that the process can take up to six months. SIX MONTHS? What? Brendon asked them what we could do. They advised if we needed our passports for a death in the family or some other urgent need to travel we could put a request in writing and may get them back.
Brendon’s parents and nana were due to arrive in September before heading off for a tour of Italy & France and we had planned to meet them on the continent. So
A glass of iron-tasting water?
Yuck! Why do all things that are good for you taste so bad? Brendon is sampling the supposedly therapeutic waters of Bath. two weeks after Brendon’s call I called. Five calls later and still no luck. In fact one lady, when looking up our case details, said- oh I see that you just applied recently. By this time it was nearly 3 months after our application. I couldn’t be polite any more and questioned exactly what part of three months was recent? Her reply? “Oh, that is pretty recent in the scheme of things.” At that point I knew that it was a flawed system & gave up. Writing and sending off a letter, just in case.
A couple of weeks later I received a call to say that they could return our passports, they were just sitting in a queue & not needed, we wouldn’t lose our place in the queue as they would contact us when it came to our turn & if we sent them in it would all be fine. Brilliant. But it was now six months after we entered the country and Brendon no longer had a valid stamp. Not a problem, he could apply for another EEA spousal visa before returning to the UK (so if in Italy, form the UK consulate in Rome) &
Yum yum, Sallly Lunns
A quaint little street with the (apparently incorrectly claimed) oldest house in Bath. Sally Lunn made here famous buns here in 1680 - but inside is a museeum where you goo down the levels of houses buit here through the medieval period, the Roman occupation and before. Oh and the Cinnamon butter is divine! would get another six months. Great News. She duly returned our passports with a letter confirming what we could do.
We proceeded to organise leave & planned a wonderful trip to Florence, Tuscany & the surrounding environs. Mmmmmm.
With everything researched & planned out, accommodation organised, route planned & half way through booking the flights I had a slightly nagging doubt at the back of my mind. What if she was wrong? I checked out all the visa sites & found them to be less than useless. Sent emails off to a couple of people, and during working hours called a whole lot more. My reply from a number of different source?
a) Italy wouldn’t give the EEA spousal visa to none Italian residents.
b) Even if they did,. You need to apply for it once you’re arrived in the country (as they need your passports) - and it would take at least a month to process. We were only going to be there a week!
I called the Home Office for the millionth time & they said that we could still risk returning without a valid stamp. But that it was up to the immigration officer -
Cardiff Castle
GOrgeous - Autumn is finally upon us - and with it the start of russet and gold leaves. The castle aint half bad either and the could potentially turn Brendon away from the UK. Oh fun! Fancy having that hanging over your trip! Oh and to top it off they advised that we would have lost our place in the queue.
Well in that case we felt it was not worth the risk & returned our passports to the Home Office.
So, just one week out from Departure, leave all booked, we can no longer go to Italy. What to do? Brendon came up with the wonderful idea of Wales. Another country but no passports needed. Brilliant!
We hired a rental car, stopped off in the historic & pretty town of Bath for two nights, then crossed over to Wales. After a short sight-seeing stay n Cardiff we moved to a beautiful B&B on the waterfront at a lovely seaside village of Mumbles, on the Gower Peninsula. Just beautiful - and so relaxing. Oh and Catherine Zeta Jones & Michael Douglas live there. No sightings unfortunately. We took a day trip along the Gower, stopping off at all the beautiful quaint towns, churches and castles -, ending up in the famously beautiful Rhossily Bay.
After Mumbles we moved on to
Cardiff Castle
The ornate castle juxtoposed against the white bones-like structure of the Millenium Stadium. Tenby in the Pembrokeshire Peninsular - the South Western most end of Wales. The beaches were just like home. So relaxing and just what the Doctor ordered.
We returned to London via the Brecon Beacons. They were not quite as wild as we had imagined, but once again very scenic.
What did we find upon our return? Our passports. With the requisite stamp on Brendon’s. Now we can travel!
Oh well, we really enjoyed Wales and are pleased we got there, If we’d had our passports we may never have discovered it’s wild beauty.
Now to plan our next trip.
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