We are here for another week and it was noticeably quieter today on the hill. Next to no queues for lift and on mountain restaurants where quiet too.
We are here for another week and it was noticeably quieter today on the hill. Next to no queues for lift and on mountain restaurants where quiet too.
Changeover day. Same here in Austria.
We’re off to Speyer in Germany today. It’s been brilliant so far: well worth the apparent hassle, which, apart from the stress of pre-departure testing hasn’t been in evidence.
Last full day in verbier, heading back tomorrow, definitely getting quieter. Lift network starts to shut down next week. And the main lift will be off soon so a replacement can be finished. The testing is a pointless hassle, but it has been worth it to get away.
A new question - has anyone been to Greece and filled out their stupid PLF form for the household?
It only gives space for the "main" person to provide their vaccination information. Any idea what to do about the others?
ooh, trying to remember this now, we're just back the other week, and altho we're both vaccinated im sure id seen a question about what to do if both you and your wife have a different vaccination status.
you havent said that thats the case, but anyway i believe theyre only interested in the extensive details of main traveller, and other members of your group would just show their documents (PCR, vaccination proof etc) at check-in.
Thanks - we're both vaccinated, and in fact on the same days! I guess we will just take all our documents. We followed the instructions so I'm not sure what else I can do!
I do hate the "email at midnight" thing - what if there's a problem? There's no time to sort it!! An extra stress for travel 🙁
I do hate the “email at midnight” thing – what if there’s a problem? There’s no time to sort it!! An extra stress for travel 🙁
i dont think thats 'a thing' now, we got ours almost immediately after sending it off a week or two prior, and i read reports on tripadvisor that this seemed to be the case for most people.
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g503710-i9517-k13630563-Plf-Hersonissos_Crete.html
am i single-handedly slowly removing all of your holiday stress doc? do you feel more relaxed now? 😀
So... Next year, does anyone think it is going to be different to travel abroad to this year. Same paperwork?
Any Day 2 PCRs cheaper than £40? At this stage I no longer care if they turn up. I just need the reference number for paperwork.
https://nwp-online.co.uk/home/p/covid-19-day-2-pcr-testing-package-for-fully-vaccinated-travellers
am i single-handedly slowly removing all of your holiday stress doc? do you feel more relaxed now? 😀
Haha yes, like a nice back rub 🙂
Germany is being ever so slightly German. In a marked contrast to everywhere else we’ve been so far, the Germans are being downright awkward and obtuse. You have to use a mask, except they would really like you to use a FFP2. Thankfully we have these with us as they’re just nicer than surgical ones. You have to check in everywhere with a QR code, except because they’re federal in outlook, not everywhere is using the central CoronaWarn app for this. So, depending on the venue you might have to use some random app that you don’t have. We’re meant to be going to the Technical Museum in Speyer tomorrow, but we’ve just received an email from them:
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
You will receive this information mail because you have reserved a museum visit to the Technik Museum Speyer for one of the coming days at the mail address andy.duff@zebin.co.uk.
We would like to inform you that according to the latest Corona regulation of the state of Rheinland-Pfalz, the so-called 3G rule for visiting the museum will apply from Monday, August 23, 2021, because the incidence in Speyer is over 35. Then we need one of the following documents from all museum visitors:
Proof of a negative Covid-19 test (maximum 24 hours old), no self-test
Proof of a Covid-19 vaccination (14 days after the last vaccination)
Proof of Covid-19 recovery, not older than six monthsExcluded from this and regarded as a tested person (asymptomatic person):
Children who have not yet reached the age of six or have not yet started school
Pupils from a primary school, a special needs education, a school based on the primary school or a vocational school. If we need to confirm the status pupil/student we will check the student ID.
In addition to the Technik Museum Speyer, the 3G regulation also applies to the IMAX Dome cinema and indoor catering (for outdoor catering you need an entrance ticket for the Technik Museum Speyer). Please bring the relevant proof documents with you and keep them to hand in the entrance area of the museum to ensure quick processing at the museum ticket office.We look forward to your visit to the museum,
Your museum team
So we’re trying to discombobulate what it means for our kids who are 3, 6 & 7. At best we’ll have to prove they’re at school, at worst I think they’ll have to be lat flowed tomorrow by some bod. We thought it might be a bad translation, but my wife’s read through the German version and it’s equally unclear.
For @drj and anyone else planning a trip to Greece:
I’m just back from a 2 week trip to Paros and the coast near Athens. It’s been great, Greek people are very conscientious about masks, etc. Living a generally outdoor life helps. Greek authorities were thorough and sympathetic to deal with, though as we flew back, we were asked by our check in, for a receipt with price paid for our 2 day tests in the UK. (on top of the 72 hour test, vaccination certs, and proof of booked 2 day tests) I can’t see how the cost of tests is of any relevance to boating a flight home, but might be something to consider.
Looking at the gov website for day 2 PCR tests - I'm confused, it doesn't seem to specify if the day 2 test needs to be PCR or lateral flow any more..
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/red-amber-and-green-list-rules-for-entering-england#amber-list-rules
Any thoughts?
I reckon it's only school kids in school groups who don't need a test, Hot Fiat, but other kids six and over do. I'd be interested to read the German version to see if it's clearer.
So… Next year, does anyone think it is going to be different to travel abroad to this year. Same paperwork?
Who knows really, Covid really is the gift that keeps on giving... when we postponed our 2020 Holiday until 2021, we never imagined at home that we'd need vaccine passports, tests, forms etc 14 months later. It's almost ironic, but if we just travelled in August 2020, despite advice not too, it would have been easier and cheaper than this year.
My personally opinion is that travel to developed countries with robust vaccine programmes like ours will be easier, the rest of the world, quite sensibly IMHO seems to have accepted that whilst there are no binary Safe/Unsafe way of doing things, being fully vaccinated is really as good as it's going to get for the moment, so unless half the cabinet have shares / lucrative board seats at Randox to look after, most, if not all the testing requirements will soon be dropped, because, what's the point? They're not sequencing the test (by and large) looking for new strains, and as New Zealand are sadly learning at the moment, unless you're not willing to let a single soul on your Island nation, not just tourists, but anyone, you can't keep out new strains forever.
I suspect, within months, travel between the UK and the EU will be largely hassle free, as long as you've had your jabs. We might still have to have our teens tested, but I think even that will cease. The Airlines and Ferry operators will put in place systems to make that easy, if they don't have them already, Eurotunnel at least have a pretty slick system and if they could share those details with the border agencies it'll go back to pretty much drive-on, drive-off again, Brexit will be the bigger barrier.
The US and other non-EU countries will probably be the same soon enough, other more exotic / less developed places will need lots of paperwork etc, but they do anyway.
The biggest hassle I can see for summer 2022 will be booster jabs. The US and EU I think will insist on them, effectively making everyone's current vaccines useless for travel, at the moment England are saying they're only going to offer boosters for the over-50s and vulnerable, the Tories will want to make a quid (or million) from it for their mates so I can see people in England needing to buy their boosters (meaning millions wont). I'm not sure if Wales have said it publicly, but the Wife's side-hustle working in the Vaccine Centre in Cardiff ended at the weekend as they've effectively completed it now, but they're starting again in 3-4 weeks on Boosters, and it will follow the same roll-out plan as before and they'll be offering boosters to everyone, it'll be roughly 6-8 months from the date of your second jab.
I reckon it’s only school kids in school groups who don’t need a test, Hot Fiat, but other kids six and over do. I’d be interested to read the German version to see if it’s clearer.
That’s what we thought too, but the gate staff were only interested in my and my wife’s certs then waived us straight through to the cash desk. Seems they’ve changed the rules today, again. What the email and website said last night:
Davon ausgenommen und als getestete Person angesehen sind (asymptomatische Person):
Kinder die das sechste Lebensjahr noch nicht vollendet haben oder noch nicht eingeschult sind
Schüler*innen einer Grundschule, eines sonderpädagogischen Bildungs- und Beratungszentrums, einer auf der Grundschule aufbauenden Schule oder einer beruflichen Schule, wobei die Glaubhaftmachung in der Regel durch ein entsprechendes Ausweisdokument (z.B. den Schülerausweis) zu erfolgen hat.
And what it now says:
Ausgenommen hiervon sind:
Kinder bis einschließlich 14 Jahren
Schülerinnen und Schüler
Checkins are definitely haphazard here and really, really rare. Scanned a QR code tonight that made both our phones Corona-Warn apps die.
In German the difference between school kids and kids is clearer, but happily they now accept any kids up to 14 without a pass.
Here in France if you're going to a place that requires the pass sanitaire it will be checked IME, no exceptions so far. Such is the demand for security staff that some places are now employing strips of wind just out of school to do the checking.
We use paper copies of the QR codes.
New Zealand are sadly learning at the moment, unless you’re not willing to let a single soul on your Island nation, not just tourists, but anyone, you can’t keep out new strains forever
Just wanted to add that "stay isolated forever" is very much not the plan here in NZ, and the government wants the opportunity to vaccinate everyone in the population before gradually opening up the border in 2022:
2022 was our "6 monnths in Europe" trip we've been planning with our kids using my long-service leave. We can't leave Australia at the moment and as to when we can? Who knows. Heaps of Aussies abroad that can't get home or stuck in places around the world. I don't wanna be "that guy" who's stuck abroad with no income and no clear plan, sat in a hotel in quarantine.
I've just checked and everywhere is "do not travel" from Australia. Both me and the misso have had 2x jabs I'm just waiting for the "kids need a jab" health advice.
We've gone from camper-vanning round Europe to a month or so in Air BNB's around Europe, to...well maybe nothing. Don't really know how to feel about it all.
Either way it's pretty crap.
Well I made it back to the U.K., border farce up to expectations. Delays, surliness, etc.
Still struggling to find Antigen tests here in the Basque Country. Local pharmacies do them but you don’t get an official confirmation of the results. In other parts of Spain you do. Option one seems to be Bilbao airport (about 45mins away) and a test centre there. About €40 each.
Arrived in the Netherlands, where they’ve clearly given up. Receptionist at our hotel said tersely said: “For your information, you don’t need a mask here anymore!”
Beer, pizza and arrangement of day 2 tests tonight <sigh> a cursory glance at the gov website suggest it’s still as full of the £20 testing shysters as it was before the recent cull. Efteling tomorrow, beach the day after then home on the ferry to Hull on Thursday night. It’s been an epic trip so far.
Anyone want to come to Austria I am an official guide (city waking, history, bike, whatever). I am also an official tester so any antigen tests you need will be done by me for free. Here´s my website
I am doing a lot of work on the Danube region in Austria
So, every single provider of day2 tests appears to be absolute scum worthy of catapulting into the sun along with all their offspring just be sure you eradicate the gene pool. None appear to allow you to add multiple bookings to one cart and the common thread among them all is that the tests might be £20 to £50 - if you drive to Kent last week, before you set off, while wearing a gimp suit to pick them up, but then shipping both ways is £25 PER TEST!
yeah a day2 might cost you nearly £50, but shouldnt be as difficult as you are finding
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/how-to-find-the-cheapest-private-coronavirus-tests-for-travel/#rapid
not a bad place to start
Randox allow you to book multiple day 2 tests in a single transaction, I went for swab at home and put in one of their drop boxes, thankfully I have one nearby. Anyway you just need the codes to get back. £43 wit FLYRYANAIR code
After following all this discussion on which provider to use for day 2 testing I was a bit taken aback yesterday to discover that being a Welsh resident it is all irrelevant and we have a choice of precisely 1 option. At £68. At least it takes the hassle and uncertainty out of it I guess!
Another Welsh resident here. I saw the response to the MP’s comment that Wales should have the same choice, which was “we’re clear we advise against foreign travel, and we want the results straight into the NHS, so why would we make it easier?” Fair enough, tbh.
That said, we’re due to go to Belgium next week. Anyone done that this summer, travelling via Eurotunnel? Fully-vaccinated group, albeit including three pensioners, plus a dog, so plenty to deal with 🙈
Not Belgium, but I have just got back from Switzerland, eurotunnel into France easy, just have a print out of your vaccine status. Euro tunnel into the U.K.!!!! Border farce is a farce, slow and queues. It should be noted I travelled on an Irish passport and I seemed to get through passport control quicker than those around me?
@mrmo, was your proof of negative COVID tests checked on your return journey?
@gozarch, as per Eurotunnel I attached a copy of the cert and the travel declaration for the return, nothing is requested on the way out. I assume that border farce have access to Eurotunnels paperwork?
But no one asked to see anything on the way back. The only request was from French customs at Folkstone on the way out.
Just realised England allow me to put my under 17 year olds on my passenger locator form, this seems to exempt him from day 2 testing. Still needs the pre arrival antigen test though but they are cheap enough.
Just realised England allow me to put my under 17 year olds on my passenger locator form, this seems to exempt him from day 2 testing. Still needs the pre arrival antigen test though but they are cheap enough.
It doesn't exempt him from testing, but when you put him on your form you are not asked to supply a day 2 test booking ref for him.
I can see how you could conclude that if no booking test ref is needed for him then no test is needed either, but I don't think that's correct.
They’re not sequencing the test (by and large) looking for new strains
I've seen this a lot on here in the last few weeks, has put sequencing taken a huge nosedive? As I recall UK were at around 9% (of lab tests, not LFTs obviously) March with an accepted minimum of 5% of positives.
A lot of other countries weren't publishing sequencing (but were maybe doing it) which whilst very much our problem isn't really in our control.
Just back from Ibiza and can confirm all was relatively straight forward.
We booked testing through Chronomics who were very efficient, didn’t need a video of the LFT and their website was super easy to use.
Checking of tests and certification on the Spanish side was very thorough, less so on the British side.
It was slightly strange being asked at the hotel which vaccine we’d had, and most wore masks inside, but bar that it was pretty normal out there.
Home, unpacked, curry, beer, YAY!
Three weeks, 2491 miles & 58hrs of driving, 7 countries, 8 border crossings, 3 ferries, 4 tests, 5 apps, two vignettes, three theme parks and somehow 60Gb of data!
Simultaneously the best and most stressful holiday we’ve done. France, Austria and the Netherlands were outstanding. Morzine has taken on another identity for me as a truly superb young family destination. Austria just pips it to the win as their mountain-top play parks are fabulous. Disney was annoyingly good, but Efteling is still truly amazeballs.
The logistics were difficult, but it was so worth it given the crap we’ve had to endure in the last 18 months.
Dutch border officers were pretty bemused by us last night and had all sorts of queries - we’d definitely not have been let in back on the 4th if it wasn’t for my Irish Passport. Thanks Mum!
Van now needs a service before I head off to Spain with it in ten day’s time. That trip, in comparison, will be child’s play.
I see the Gov COVID test provider list is still full of bullshit. £20 but only if you live in Peterborough / are a paramedic / Tory MP with unknown number of children…
It doesn’t exempt him from testing, but when you put him on your form you are not asked to supply a day 2 test booking ref for him.
I can see how you could conclude that if no booking test ref is needed for him then no test is needed either, but I don’t think that’s correct.
Happy to test him and his sister as we have already booked and paid for them. Just interested to properly understand the regs.
They didn't bother checking out vaccine paperwork coming back to the UK at the tunnel. He claimed it was electronic.
Bull.
Was checked by the French on the way out.
We had that at Hull on Friday morning. No PLF check, just regular passport scan.
Randox have failed to send our test kits out for tomorrow, so while I was brushing my teeth just now, I marked the transaction as in dispute with Barclaycard. Not paying for something I’m not receiving.
Glad you loved Austria.
If you ever want to go back, I have a place there near Leogang/Saalbach/Hinterglemm.
Big car park for the van and STW rates!
Did the kids enjoy Speyer hot_fiat? Either of the technik museums is a great place for breaking journeys. Everything open? Seem to remember the submarine and Antonov got a little "cosy" so wondered if they would be shut.
Deeply jealous as you've been doing all the stuff we used to do - kids are now 17 and 19 so maybe getting a bit old for the mtn top playparks :-). Might manage third attempt at bounced Alps trip with them next year....
Another question for travelers returned from Greece - any tips on where to get the LG test needed to return to Blighty?
Efcharisto poli
hi @mick_r yeah they did. We've been breaking our journeys there for about 8 years or so & stay at the brewery because: BEER! SCHNITZEL!
Most things were open in the technik museum, with the exception of the smaller aircraft and loco cabs. The 747/slides had a traffic light system for the stairs. The sub, antinov and lifeboat were 1in-1out. Understandable really. Didn't go to sinsheim this time, though we did wave at the tupolev and concorde as we drove past.
That looks great @colp . The zillertal is beautiful, but it lacks the serious biking infrastructure of other areas. We'll keep it in mind.
We've booked up for skiing next year, but are little concerned about Austria's current vaccine rules: they won't accept boosters and see vaccine certs as having no validity beyond 9 months.
How have we never been to Speyer brewery before! Where do you park? (presumably you've got a vehicle full of bikes).
Now kids are old we've managed some single hit journeys from / to the ferry - Rotterdam to Austria (Damuls) where we knew the accommodation so they just left us a key. And last time Meiringen to Rotterdam was stress free apart from the 4am start 🙂
Where do you go for Austria mtb?
