Some of you may know my son is studying in Germany this semester. Either way, he called the other day to say his last week there (end of June) had opened up, did we want to visit? And yes, I do want to visit, and so I am, for roughly five days. [for background, I’ve been to Germany many (many) times, and also driven through many of the Schengen countries]
But my questions now, obviously, are about traveling under current conditions. US embassy websites have a lot to say about US citizens not being allowed to travel directly from the US to most European countries, but not much about indirect travel. You’d think it would be the same, but I found this gem on the website for the US Embassy in the Netherlands:
I’m in the EU for a short stay. Can I travel on to a Schengen country or to another EU country?
This depends on the country you are travelling to. In principle, if you are already in the EU or the United Kingdom, you can travel on to a Schengen country or another country in the EU. But you will need to meet the entry conditions for that country.
Also, unless things have changed, it’s not like someone is checking the border anyway, it seems like I could just drive right into the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, whatever, though presumably there’s some risk.
I guess my real question here is: any general thoughts on any of this? It’s really hard to gauge from over here how locked down things really are, and my son hasn’t gone outside of Germany. I’m not looking for research from you (doing plenty of that myself), just wondering what you might know.
Thanks!
ETA: Austria may be a bad example above, I know they’ve had a lot of border stops so far…