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Germany - should we stay or should we go

27 replies

BigFiveMama · 02/10/2020 22:10

Have booked a long weekend in Berlin very soon and I'm stuck as whether to go or not. We've not been away since March and could really do with a break but the cases are rising and rules change all the time. At the moment we wouldn't have to quarantine on return. Also would not be able to get all the money from accommodation but can reschedule flights. I'm just stuck and it feels like it would be safer to stay home.

OP posts:
Mentounasc · 03/10/2020 21:21

I do have sympathy, BigFive, we had to cancel a city break to Copenhagen earlier in the summer. We rebooked to go somewhere we could drive to, with much lower population density, and infection rates about the same as where we were coming from. But it was still a downer.

Two things that might make you feel a little better - or at least give you that 'just as well' feeling:

  • Berlin isn't that much fun for tourists right now. It's not a primarily tourist town, ie not overly dependent on tourism for its income, so the measures introduced haven't sought to be particularly welcoming to tourists (unlike the Greek islands, for example). All the clubs are still closed, you have to book in advance for a timed slot in any museums or indoor sights, obviously wearing masks throughout the visit, shop assistants WILL shout at you for going the wrong way down the one-way system, and fair enough because they've had a filthy time of things in recent months, etc, etc.
  • Secondly, I've just looked at the latest figures, and I retract what I said above about the low(ish) figures here: by German standards they're abysmally high (33/100000/7 days), with five Berlin districts among the worst ten in the country (although none higher than 56, which is still way lower than many parts of the UK). So presuming you'd be staying in one of these inner-city districts, you would indeed be at more risk there than in your Covid-free Scottish health authority.

"the fact that we could easily travel to Liverpool for example, possibly bringing the virus home but not Germany (without quarantine and testing anyway) just does not make sense to me." You'd have to take that up with your government, not with the German health authority - it certainly does not make sense. But I thought cities with high infection rates in the UK also banned travel in and out of the area? Getting people from high-incidence areas to test and quarantine would be wise, but presumably a logistical nightmare given the UK government's current inability to manage its existing levels of testing.

I hope you do manage to find somewhere nice in the UK to get away to, which helps you feel relaxed without being particularly risky.

"Having said that, from a purely selfish point of view you're better off catching it whilst in Germany than here. You'd have access to fast early and very good treatment over there." Wow, that's incredibly selfish - we have an excellent health system because we pay more for it as a proportion of our income. EU tourists (and Brits until the end of the year) can of course benefit from that as part of the reciprocal health scheme, but the idea is not that people can come over recklessly in a weird corona version of health tourism. You'd be pretty pissed off if people started coming to Britain for that reason from other continents, no?

Bienemayas · 03/10/2020 22:07

At the moment we wouldn't have to quarantine on return

No, because cases in Germany are lower than in these UK. But unfortunately you might have to quarantine when you arrive, unless you can show a negative test not older than 48 hours. Otherwise you'll need to get tested on arrival and wait for you our test result while isolating.

I'd suggest you stay in the uk and book a weekend away somewhere.

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