Landbridge to Holland

ToxicPaddy

Hey guys,

Looking for some advice here.

I need to get someone back to Ireland from central Europe and thinking of using ferries and driving via UK to Hook of Holland as flights are pretty much non existent atm.

Is it possible to do with the whole lockdown?

It will be a case of driving over, loading up the car and heading straight back with them. We have no problem with the 2 weeks self isolation but just trying to find advice on border openings between Netherlands/Germany and German/Austria. I'll be living in tbe car over and back, all food water etc will be coming with me so it's not a case of having to book in anywhere etc.

Is this feasible by the end of the month? Anyone on here a European truck driver who can tell me what they see happening around Europe with ferries, border crossings etc?

Thanks.

CelticRambler

In the absence of any other response, as a non-lorry driving continental resident I think the idea is likely to be fraught with frustrations. Although there is an EU recommendation in place that Schengen countries allow the transit of their territory by Schengen Area nationals for the purposes of travelling to their primary residence (a) most of the countries you'll be travelling through are ignoring that; and (b) your trip wouldn't count because your not a Schengen Area resident, you'd be entering the Sch.Area from a country in lockdown, and you wouldn't be going to your primary residence.

There are no formal controls between the Netherlands and Germany, but there are spot checks; similarly there are different rule for each German Lander, so while you might make it across the NL-DE border without a problem, you could get stopped within Germany. For the time being, the DE-AT border would be closed to you. Travelling in an Irish-registered car would immediately attract attention, even parked up, and I'm not sure what documentation you could produce to satisfy the police or border agents that you weren't on holidays. Saying you'd be sleeping in your car wouldn't change anything - that's quite normal for continentals on holiday!

I can only speak for conditions at the Franco-German and Franco-Swiss border, and there is no way you wouldn't get stopped at either of those, and quite likely be refused entry. So your plans would need to include contingencies for delays of several days in each direction.

Flights are not as rare as you seem to think - there are direct connections from Frankfurt to Dublin, and direct flights from Paris resuming next week, I think. "Central Europe" is a rather vague description, but if the person is in, or can get to Austria, it would seem more feasible to me that they make their own way to an airport with flights to either Dublin or London.

ToxicPaddy

CelticRambler wrote: »

In the absence of any other response, as a non-lorry driving continental resident I think the idea is likely to be fraught with frustrations. Although there is an EU recommendation in place that Schengen countries allow the transit of their territory by Schengen Area nationals for the purposes of travelling to their primary residence (a) most of the countries you'll be travelling through are ignoring that; and (b) your trip wouldn't count because your not a Schengen Area resident, you'd be entering the Sch.Area from a country in lockdown, and you wouldn't be going to your primary residence.

There are no formal controls between the Netherlands and Germany, but there are spot checks; similarly there are different rule for each German Lander, so while you might make it across the NL-DE border without a problem, you could get stopped within Germany. For the time being, the DE-AT border would be closed to you. Travelling in an Irish-registered car would immediately attract attention, even parked up, and I'm not sure what documentation you could produce to satisfy the police or border agents that you weren't on holidays. Saying you'd be sleeping in your car wouldn't change anything - that's quite normal for continentals on holiday!

I can only speak for conditions at the Franco-German and Franco-Swiss border, and there is no way you wouldn't get stopped at either of those, and quite likely be refused entry. So your plans would need to include contingencies for delays of several days in each direction.

Flights are not as rare as you seem to think - there are direct connections from Frankfurt to Dublin, and direct flights from Paris resuming next week, I think. "Central Europe" is a rather vague description, but if the person is in, or can get to Austria, it would seem more feasible to me that they make their own way to an airport with flights to either Dublin or London.

Thanks for the reply CelticRambler

The point about the Irish reg car is very valid and not something I had thought about tbh. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

The person is located on the Austria Slovak border and the nearest airport, Vienna has no flights to UK or Ireland scheduled for the foreseeable future. The only other airport nearby is Bratislava which is on complete lockdown, so no chance of using that one.

The person in question is in their 70s, so travelling by car is probably safer than flights and airports. At least on ferries we can book a cabin for them so they are someway isolated. I hadn't planned on heading to Europe until June at the earliest, so some restrictions may be eased by then but I'll play it by ear.

However you made some very valid points in moving between countries and even within countries.

At the moment Austria does allow you in, but if you're staying you need a proof of address for self isolation for 14 days, if just passing through you more a proof of a COVID-19 test no more than 5 days old showing a negative result and have less than 12 hours to be out of the country.

Dutch/German border is unknown atm.

CelticRambler

ToxicPaddy wrote: »

Dutch/German border is unknown atm.

There are definitely no formal controls on the Dutch-German border, but whatever movement restrictions are in force (national or local) are expected to be respected by anyone in the area.

Although things are a little bit less restricted at the moment, that's a situation that risks changing back to lockdown-ish as the rate of infection in Germany has gone up again in the last couple of weeks. Also, one of the worst clusters was in the NL-DE border town of Gangelt, so it wouldn't surprise me if the locals were hypervigilant.

Have you made enquiries of the Irish embassy in Germany to see if you could get any kind of clearance to transit?

Alternatively, perhaps the person concerned could travel within Austria right up to the German border and walk across to meet you there, without you having to enter Austria? Though even if it's possible, it might not be feasible for a 70-year-old.

ToxicPaddy

CelticRambler wrote: »

There are definitely no formal controls on the Dutch-German border, but whatever movement restrictions are in force (national or local) are expected to be respected by anyone in the area.

Although things are a little bit less restricted at the moment, that's a situation that risks changing back to lockdown-ish as the rate of infection in Germany has gone up again in the last couple of weeks. Also, one of the worst clusters was in the NL-DE border town of Gangelt, so it wouldn't surprise me if the locals were hypervigilant.

Have you made enquiries of the Irish embassy in Germany to see if you could get any kind of clearance to transit?

Alternatively, perhaps the person concerned could travel within Austria right up to the German border and walk across to meet you there, without you having to enter Austria? Though even if it's possible, it might not be feasible for a 70-year-old.

I have spoken to the Irish embassy but as this isn't an Irish person or passport holder they are not really too interested in helping out, which is fair enough, I'm sure they have their hands full elsewhere in the current situation.

Getting that person to the German/Austrian border isn't really an option unfortunately.

murphaph

I think this is a non-runner for the moment. We live in Brandenburg but still have our Berlin registered car. Around here a B reg is common so you'd never be stopped in it but we wouldn't dream of driving to Bavaria.

Some zoos have reopened. Our closest zoo apart from Berlin (packed) would be in Magdeburg but that's just inside Saxony Anhalt where travel for tourism reasons is prohibited still, so we went around Berlin to another zoo in Eberswalde which is still in our state of Brandenburg.

Driving across the whole of Germany in a foreign reg car would stick out like a sore thumb.

Sorry I don't have a good idea on how you can get to Austria but I have heard Austria wants to open up tourism for foreigners sooner rather than later so it may be possible in the not to distant future to do it all by more conventional means.