Adventure Bike Rider Forum

Okay... We arrived in northern France last Thursday... No different to mid June when we where last over... Yes more mask being worn but its life as normal.. No hysteria.

We traveled down to the lloire same situation and now arrived in Dortmund Germany... No hostility and made to feel welcome...

Coclusion... Very few brits over in europe but other nationality moving about as normal.. Campsites open et Al...

We arrive back Sunday from Germany back to work Monday and back out to Europe over Christmas time...

UK plc is full of wooly backs..

Tramp wrote: ↑Tue Sep 22, 2020 1:33 pm
UK plc is full of wooly backs..

What do you mean? Do you percieve that we are more concerned than our european counterparts or that we have tighter restrictions?

.. Wrong term sorry to all liverpuddlions...

What I ment was while the UK dither about Europe is getting on with life and they have double or treble our rates but then again they test like mad... If the UK did the same we would have high numbers.....

Life goes on and folks can still have a good jolly abroad if carefull...

Tramp wrote: ↑Tue Sep 22, 2020 7:34 pm .. Wrong term sorry to all liverpuddlions...

What I ment was while the UK dither about Europe is getting on with life and they have double or treble our rates but then again they test like mad... If the UK did the same we would have high numbers.....

Life goes on and folks can still have a good jolly abroad if carefull...

Yes indeed, and campsites etc in the UK feel just like normal. The difference is that continental Europeans can just drive around as they please and, lock down or not, move between countries etc. In Britain, because of our Island status (and mindset) we can't pop to france without tickets and passports. Our gov can restrict it and enforce legal quarantines that can cost people their jobs or other problems that we can't really predict, if I was away in Spain and suddenly the gov said 'when you return to the UK your daughter can't go to school for a month' she'd be gutted. If we were French and the French gov said that I could just say we weren't there and no one would know .

Alas to most people Europe increasingly feels 'other'.

I've been in Germany for a while now. We usually split our time between Northumberland and Germany, my wife having dual nationality. My observations from living in both (rather than holidaying for a couple of weeks) is this - and bear in mind I'm talking about a specific area of the North East and of the Mosel and the Rheinland.

There is a far higher percentage of people observing the law, regulations and guidelines in Germany than in the UK. One illustration of this is shopping, where I consistently see people not using face coverings in the UK - not just children - but have never seen a single person without face covering in Germany. I think this is indicative, part cultural (in my experience of living there for years, most Germans abide by the law far more than the British) and part better common sense. If you translate that to other aspects of life, it's not surprising that they have fewer cases of Covid and the infection rate is lower.

In general - and this is opinion, rather than direct observation - I think the German government have handled the crisis better than the UK government. Again, this is reflected in the relatively low numbers. This is not just luck or coincidence it seems to me. Take the way they have rolled out test, track and trace and the lab infrastructure for example. This underpins the control and the population do their bit to build on that foundation.

As an ageing gentleman with underlying health issues (microcytic anaemia and heart angina/arrhythmia) I chose to travel over to Germany when I did, as I could see the situation in the UK worsening and I have no faith or trust in the Johnson government or, if I'm honest, the British people. I'm glad I am where I am.
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Having travelled to Germany on business quite a lot in the last few decades, I've never been impressed by the Brexiteers argument that we should leave the EU 'because of the bloody Germans'.
In my view, we'd do very well to hire a load of German civil servants, educationalists, and industrialists to come to the UK and sort out the mess we've got into.

I travelled through a lot of countries in late August, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and Germany. I found them all to be more vigilant and observant of the rules than the British and I felt a lot safer there. That is hardly surprising given our government’s lack of planning and inconsistent messages. I think Bojo still underestimates the impact his defence of DC’s breaking of the rules has had. Recently we have had the government admit that they are breaking international law, albeit ‘in a specific and limited way’ that is hardly the message that they should be sending at this time. For them not to predict that they would be a rise in cases after they had encouraged schools to return and people to go back to the office was just crass stupidity.
These are the clowns who are leading our country off a cliff edge with Brexit. If it was not for the uncertainty that expats in the E.U. face I think there would be millions more joining them.
Cheers

Opps it's gone awol again.... It was ment as a first hand experience like jak* findings this summer... It is still possible safely to tour on a motorbike in europe... Far less crowded now summer is over and imho far safer covid wise...

If I had the chance I would still move to Europe ASAP... They as citizens have Respect.... Simple as that... I've just had a blood test to see if I've actually already had covid 19....cant get that in UK lol..

have a listen to yourselves,

just go ,

dave.

"We arrive back Sunday from Germany back to work Monday " No self isolating Tramp? I take it it was a work trip? At least you get to go abroad.