Today's card was sent from Finland, with the message that in the 70s and 80s it was a great thing for people to take a boat to Sweden. Duty free drinks were part of the excitement. That used to be part of the excitement of travelling from the UK to France on the cross-Channel ferries. However that part of the holiday feeling disappeared with the advent of the European Union.
The last weekend of duty free was at the end of June 1999, a bumper weekend for the cross channel ferry companies when everyone rushed to make the most of the bargains to be had. The changes in the regulations had been put forward in 1990 but had been strongly opposed by the UK, France and Germany.
Report from the BBC news at the time.
We always take advantage of the duty free and pricing on cruise ships.
ReplyDeleteI have never bought anything duty free but then I have never gone anywhere
ReplyDeleteSo it was considered kind of a duty to go get drunk in Sweden?
ReplyDeleteDuty free was nice, that is apart from the boat trip I went on once from Germany to Denmark to buy duty free butter, that was in the 1970s. I shall add that it wasn't my idea ;)
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