Talking of stupid passport situations, I arrived at a youth hostel in Edinburgh late one night that I'd booked into over the internet the night before and the daft girl from Australia on the desk asked to see my passport!! I laughed and told her I didn't have my passport. She replied in a jobsworth manner that you have to show your passport to stay there. I pointed out to her that I was hardly likely to be carrying my passport with me for a car trip around Scotland. To which she just repeated that I had to show my passport to stay there. I replied that it never said that on the web site when I booked and without that information why would I be carrying my passport with me to Scotland! She went to see her manager who came out to see me and apologised saying that 99.99% of people who stay in that youth hostel were people from abroad so the girl hadn't realised that I didn't need one!