st599_uk wrote: ↑25 Oct 2021, 2:50pm
Been over in Germany for a many times delayed meet up with friends.
At the arrival airport had to show:
Passport
Proof of accommodation (Booking.com email)
Proof of funds (HSBC app)
Return flight tickets (Gmail ok)
German CoVid registration (which requires you to upload UK CoVid certificate)
Plus I now have stamps in the passport and had a nice chat with customs.
I was in Berlin a couple of weeks ago. On arrival at BER I had to show passport, onward flight ticket and the Einreiseanmeldung. The border force chap asked me whether I was staying with friends or in booked accommodation - I replied booked accommodation but he didn't ask where or want to see proof. Neither did he ask for proof of funds. He asked the purpose of my trip ("holiday"), stamped my passport and let me go on my way.
The couple before me were asked to show proof of accommodation, but they probably didn't help their own cause when the gentleman responded to the question "where are you staying?" with "I don't know"!
I flew back to Manchester with a transfer in Amsterdam. I had the Dutch quarantine declaration and health declaration ready, together with proof of vaccination, but I wasn't asked to show any of them. Curiously on boarding the plane at Berlin I didn't have to show any ID at all. I know it's a flight within Schengen so there are no border formalities, but I would have expected at least to be asked to show some kind of proof that the boarding pass I was using did actually belong to me. But no - I scanned the boarding pass to get into security and again at the gate, and that was it.
For the onward flight from Schiphol I couldn't check in online because KLM wanted me to show the Passenger Locator Form and proof of vaccination. You're supposed to be able to upload these in the app and then it will let you check in, but it didn't work for me. So I had to go to a check-in desk. How quaint! All went smoothly though; there was a bit of a queue but it moved quickly.
On arrival at the gates there was a kind of "dummy gate" where you had to show all the COVID-related documents before they let you through to border control (passport stamped out) and then the gate proper.
So one or two more formalities than in the past, some Brexit-related, some COVID-related, but all in all it went very smoothly and there were no issues. Tip: Be organised, have the correct documents and sound like you know what you're doing!
As this is a cycling forum, I should mention that there were no bikes involved in any of this.