Travel to Germany

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Jul 8, 2022 13:03:27 GMT -5 @athena53 said:

Jul 8, 2022 12:50:13 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

When TD bought a few more bottles of scotch leaving Santiago in duty free, there was a cart at the airplane door that he had to pick up the bottles from.  When we collected luggage in Atlanta, the scotch had to get packed into our checked luggage the rest of the way.

I remember going through Dubai a few years ago and even duty free liquor getting confiscated at the gate.  There were a lot of unhappy people.  Our last trip through Dubai, we had just gotten cups of coffee to drink while we were waiting to board.  We could not go into the gate area with coffee, as there was a secondary screening of carry on luggage.   We ran into this connecting in Paris too.  We didn't bother with duty free alcohol after seeing what happened the first time through Dubai.

So.. they sold it to you airside in Dubai and then confiscated it?  Weird, and what a ripoff.

Many airports outside of the US have secondary screening before boarding- I don't understand why if their screening before you can go airside is so effective.  (And they all insist that it is.)  I saw a guy being required to empty the water bottles he had on his belt before he could board a flight from Santa Cruz, Bolivia to Miami.  He presumably filled them airside- why were they a potential danger?

And then there was the time the guys at Kathmandu airport X-rayed my CHECKED bag and confiscated half a bottle of whisky in the bag.  I could, however, buy more whisky airside at Duty-Free. 

Some of this stuff borders on theft and harassment.

Yep.  We couldn’t figure out exactly whose liquor was getting confiscated because some were, some were not.  Since Emirates flies into countries were liquor is not allowed, we were speculating that that’s why they were confiscated.  But why would you buy liquor in duty free if you knew you couldn’t bring it into the country on the off chance they would let you?  

We deliberately did not buy wine in South Africa for this purpose.  Our stops after there were Maldives and Dubai.  We figured that there was a good chance wine would be confiscated in either of those places.

We came back from Mexico with a bottle of Kahlua and a bottle of good tequila carefully wrapped up by duty free.  When we put it in our checked luggage, when we got home not only was it unwrapped, but the bottle seals were broken and the levels were down.  We tossed the bottles, we were afraid that they had been adulterated.  

[stillmovingforward]

Hi everyone! I realized i started this thread and didn't really respond again. I've been reading everything. I want to thank you all for all the help on this thread!
I've been really busy getting my team ready and getting my work trip ready so not much spare time. But I'm off now and let's see how much information I use.
I know the Bolt app will be useful for sure. It doesn't look like I'll have much spare time but I hope to make the most of it.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

From my reading on travel boards, you might seriously want to consider taking only carry on luggage.  If you do check luggage, check out some sort of tracking system.  We used Air Tags on our last trip, which are used with iPhones but Android phones have tags too.  

Also something I came across is Airalo app.  It’s an e SIM card where once you download and sign in, you can get a data plan in a bunch of different countries.  I haven’t had a chance to try it out, but it seems intriguing and am planning on it when I get the chance.

[stillmovingforward]

I did see there were problems. Thankfully, I'm don't carryon. No equipment to move this time thankfully!

[Deleted]

Jul 23, 2022 12:25:20 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

Also something I came across is Airalo app.  It’s an e SIM card where once you download and sign in, you can get a data plan in a bunch of different countries.  I haven’t had a chance to try it out, but it seems intriguing and am planning on it when I get the chance.

Thank you!  Thank you!  I always think fondly of these boards when I use something I learned about here (most recently the Zanfel I used that stopped some mild poison ivy from turning into a mess).

I have a SIM card that works in the EU but not in Albania, my first destination, nor Bosnia/Herzegovina or Serbia.  I'll have to buy separate e-SIMs for all 3 but the prices are very reasonable.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Jul 23, 2022 14:41:32 GMT -5 @athena53 said:

Jul 23, 2022 12:25:20 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

Also something I came across is Airalo app.  It’s an e SIM card where once you download and sign in, you can get a data plan in a bunch of different countries.  I haven’t had a chance to try it out, but it seems intriguing and am planning on it when I get the chance.

Thank you!  Thank you!  I always think fondly of these boards when I use something I learned about here (most recently the Zanfel I used that stopped some mild poison ivy from turning into a mess).

I have a SIM card that works in the EU but not in Albania, my first destination, nor Bosnia/Herzegovina or Serbia.  I'll have to buy separate e-SIMs for all 3 but the prices are very reasonable.

Let me know how it works.  I have downloaded the app, but haven’t had a chance to try it out yet.  I think we are going to use this for the WC.  

[stillmovingforward]

I want to know how this goes also. There are a lot more trips abroad in my future

[Deleted]

Jul 23, 2022 14:55:22 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

Let me know how it works.  I have downloaded the app, but haven’t had a chance to try it out yet.  I think we are going to use this for the WC.  

I will- I'm scheduled to land in Albania August 10 so it will be awhile.

I'm old enough to remember the horror stories of people placing long-distance calls from abroad and finding that a 10-minute call from their hotel cost them something awful like $300. In 1997 I was in Bermuda and had CompuServe. They had no local lines in Bermuda- I had to use a US number- so I connected, did the Send/Receive Mail command and then disconnected. I called the hotel operator and asked what that call cost. It was $7.50. One inflation calculator said that would be $13.89 in today's dollars. I was VERY careful about how many times I connected after that.

Technology and competition have certainly improved many areas of life.

[stillmovingforward]

Funny thing (and I know better), my passport expires soon. And to get into Germany you must have at least 90 days left on it. 🤯
The border guards chatted with their uppers and let me in anyway. They did warm me not to leave Germany or I might not be able to get back. I am very grateful for them!

[jerseygirl]

Some countries require 6 months left on passport. So annoying cause you don’t get all the time available paid for your pp