Submitted by Evelyn Fincham
Shipping our motor home back to the U.S. was easier than on the way over to Europe since we had been through the drill and also now knew our way around the port area in Zeebrugge, Belgium. While in Europe we talked to several people who all said Europeans always ship their motor homes to Halifax because customs and security procedures are much less stringent; and therefore we decided to do the same. K-Lines does not ship to Halifax so that left Wallenius Lines and Seabridge, a German company that acts as a go-between agent. Seabridge came back with a quote higher than Wallenius so we naturally decided on Wallenius. Plus, we liked the idea of communicating with an agent that worked directly for Wallenius.
Based on the dimensions I gave the agent for our 24’ Winnebago View, the quote was 3400€ – quite a bit more than the cost to ship to Europe. It seems the shipping lines have raised their rates in the past year using a fuel adjustment percentage and it varies by departure country. So we removed the roof vent cover and spare tire and gave our agent the smaller dimensions. This saved us 200€. Also, unlike K- Lines out of Jacksonville, Wallenius did not send us an updated additional bill after measuring the motor home after drop-off. We were told the RV had to be “carwash” clean or else Canada would charge us an additional $300 Canadian if they had to do the washing, so we took care to make sure she was clean, using a bucket and squeegee since it’s hard to find car washes in Europe.
We had about $2,000 worth of items stolen on the way from Jacksonville to Belgium in April so this time we went to greater lengths to hide everything. This is what we did: 1) We chained the bike, tire, and new lawn chairs to the toilet with along cable lock. 2) We took the panel off the ceiling that curves down to the overhead bed in the very front. There is a LOT of space there and we used it for clothes and shoes. 3) We took off the speaker on the wall below the refrigerator and found an area with just wiring. We put quite a few smaller electronic items in that area. 4) Underneath one of the dinette benches is the furnace. We used some of the extra space and screwed the lid down. 5) There’s a cabinet under the other dinette bench that we packed solid with books. 6) The box frame for the bed has the biggest area for storage and many screws secured the top. 7) We even stashed some things in the water pump compartment that is underneath an outside cabinet. We didn’t bring back anything that was illegal – everything was hidden just to prevent theft.
Our agent had given us instructions to wire the €3200 to their bank in Zeebrugge. But we decided to take the cash out of ATM’s bit by bit starting well in advance. We arrived in Zeebrugge one week before having to drop our vehicle off and went straight to the bank with the cash since it was supposed to be wired one week in advance. Unfortunately, the bank would not let us deposit the funds into the Wallenius account unless we also had an account at the bank. But the teller told us we could pay Wallenius directly when we made the drop-off. We drove to the Wallenius office at the port and they were pretty casual, saying yes, just bring the money the following Thursday along with our passport copies, copy of title, copy of European green card (vehicle insurance) and the Seaway Bill. Seaway Bill is the European wording for Bill of Lading.
We dropped Tulip off around 10 am, as Wallenius said the office is full of lorry drivers up until that time. The agent (Manu, who was movie star handsome) handled our paperwork at the dock and warned us to have nothing inside the RV due to theft. He said whatever was in outside compartments should be safe. It was not a requirement to be empty for any other reason. We did leave some cheap replacement plastic dishes and all the cleaning supplies in the cabinets; we didn’t care if they were stolen or not. Also the roof vent and some baskets that were too large to hide.
Thanks to some fantastic new friends all went smoothly. They have a big American Class A motorhome and were parked across from us the week we were at the free motorhome Aires (the one next to the Yacht Harbor) in Zeebrugge. He works for one of the shipping companies and volunteered (actually he insisted) on accompanying us to Wallenius Lines where he marched right in ahead of everyone in line and got someone to help us get processed. Then he and his wife took us to the train station in Blankenberg, about 5 miles away. He asked if there were any promotional fares and so we only paid 19€ total for both of us to the Brussels Airport vs. 56€ in April from the airport to Brugge. The connections were much better too, because we took the train straight to Ghent-St. Peters and then got the airport express train without having to change in downtown Brussels. The normal commuter train that runs from central Brussels to the airport makes stops in bad parts of Brussels and there are some really shady characters on the train.
Our agent emailed us the Notice of Arrival with port fee costs of $348 Cdn or $358 US. These funds were supposed to be sent to New Jersey, but when I called our contact (Dean Hansen) at Wallenius in Halifax he said that wasn’t necessary and we could bring the cash with us. Steve flew to Halifax, taking an overnight flight so that he would arrive earlier in the day and not have to stay in a hotel overnight. Unfortunately, flights were late and he missed a connection and arrived in Halifax at 2:30 pm rather than 11:30 am. There is an airport shuttle to downtown for about $19 that runs every hour but since it was so late already Steve took a taxi ($53) to the Wallenius shipping office downtown on Water Street and then walked to customs 10 minutes away. Everything went smoothly. I had called Customs in advance and asked what paperwork they would need, and they sounded kind of concerned that we were Americans shipping to Canada and wanted to know how long we would be in Canada. I explained that we shipped to Canada only because of the reputation for Halifax having a safer port as far as theft is concerned, and told them what happened in April. So Customs only asked Steve if there was liquor, tobacco, or firearms in the motor home and gave him the release. Customs then called a cab to take him to the Autoport. When he arrived, he paid the cab ($27) and it left. It was 4:28 and the building was locked! Steve said he banged on the door for five minutes until a lady came. He begged her to help him get our motorhome -otherwise he was stranded. So she called someone who drove it up front, checked his paperwork and he was on his way. What a relief!
At first Steve thought the front hubcaps had been stolen but they were sitting on the front floorboard. Nothing was missing except that (so far anyway) he can’t find the license plates (which he had removed and hidden). He’s looked in all our hiding places except the furnace compartment. In the meantime he put on the laminated copies we had made prior to going to Mexico in Dec 2009. They have an expired date on them but our registration shows we’re up to date in case he gets stopped.
One thing that I might add is that he had no problems entering the US. The border agent asked him how long he had been in Canada and his purpose. He explained that he picked up our RV from the port in Halifax. The agent got very excited and thought that was so cool and how much did the RV cost to ship and so on.