Germany moves to Level 4 for US citizens - very high risk

[Coral]

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/cdc-very-high-risk-travel-destinations-november-22/index.html

 

 Germany and Denmark were added to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's list of "very high" risk travel destinations on Monday as a winter Covid-19 surge sweeps much of Europe.

Germany is battling a fourth wave and reported a record single-day surge in cases last week.

Some of the charming Christmas markets that typically draw crowds in Germany this time of year have already been canceled, including the popular Christmas market in Munich.

 

[CPT Trips]

And the Health Minister doesn’t seem optimistic.

https://www.thelocal.de/20211122/germans-will-be-vaccinated-cured-or-dead-after-winter-minister-claims/

[steamboats]

That was a dramatic statement by our managing health minister (officially he´s already dismissed as we had an election but the new government hasn´t formed yet so all including Chancellor Merkel are currently still working) to tell the people how important the vaccination is. He also said that Pfizer is the Mercedes and Moderna the Rolls Royce... after he said that he will limit the orders of Pfizer as 25 million doeses of Moderna are aging.

 

So don´t give too much on his wording.

 

steamboats

[Canal archive]

So interesting to hear that other countries are having governmental challenges to contend with as we are! I read an interesting reasoning as to why it seems that Europe is having such a hard time of it as opposed to England - our lockdown was longer and we got the Delta strain some time before you in the rest of Europe. If that is the case your challenge will be the time of year we were ‘lucky’ if that’s the right word as it was coming into the summer, fresh air works wonders, now we are rapidly approaching winter a challenging time. Our health adviser has stated that no one will be forced to be vaccinated although there are very many people who disagree with this!

[steamboats]

1 hour ago, Canal archive said:

I read an interesting reasoning as to why it seems that Europe is having such a hard time of it as opposed to England - our lockdown was longer and we got the Delta strain some time before you in the rest of Europe. 

 

Hmm, not sure whether UK is doing better. Germany has reached 400 as 7 day number today, UK is 430 and you never went under 300 when our numbers were still below 50.

 

Delta hit UK earlier then Europe. We had a moderate third wave and now are deep into the fourth wave. And even those countries which kept low numbers (like Spain and Italy) are on the rise now.

 

steamboats

[Canal archive]

As you can see I did not say better it was suggested in the article I read that one of the reasons several countries are seeing a surge is as I wrote. It’s painfully obvious that we are not doing better it’s just that as things progress at a different pace and at different times this could be part of the cause. Italy are doing quite well at the moment but some time ago we’re in an horrendous situation. It all keeps the pundits and so called journalists busy and makes it all the more difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff!

[notamermaid]

To be honest, I am sick of the dramatic words of our politicians including the "advanced divisive Orwellian" rhetoric of some. According to the Guardian the Austrian Prime Minister had the audacity to apologize to the vaccinated citizens of his country for the actions of the unvaccinated. What impression does that leave on a 10 year old?? No wonder people are referencing Nuremberg trials and yellow stars - and they are not all fringe weirdos.

 

Our Rhineland-Palatinate health minister said "I want to be clear, we need to take these measures because of the unvaccinated". Are we supposed to get at each others' throats?? The unvaccinated will be punished from tomorrow anyway and every boss now has to check the health status of their employees. Tension is high in my state and if we were not such a wine-loving, relaxed, half-rural bunch of people I would fear riots in the streets like in the Netherlands.

 

No, I am not in a good mood.

 

notamermaid

 

[NavyCruiser]

We've just been in 7 German towns on the Rhine, Main, now Danube this past week, in Passau today.

The news on BBC Europe repeatedly are all about the restrictions & protests in the Netherlands & Austria.  

But all of our Viking tours & excursions went ahead as planned/scheduled in those 7 towns in Germany.  All felt normal & awesome in those beautiful towns, just need to show vaccine card & wear mask when entering indoors, otherwise no mask needed while touring outdoors. 

While Germany was great, both stops in Austria were canceled. 

Let's hope Budapest Hungary later this week is just as awesome as Germany...

[Canal archive]

Please take what the BBC and the Guardian says with a huge pinch of salt. I have a friend who is a superb photo journalist but is a few miles left of Gengis Khan who reads their diatribes and the BBC is fast catching them up. There doesn’t seem to be any middle ground and the politicians are joining in whatever the colour of their cloth.

[notamermaid]

Thank you for the reminder. I do use salt with them ☺️. Hopefully I can find the original German somewhere.

 

As a side note: I have only CNN and BBC world news in my cable network. After many months YouTube started feeding me Fox News and Sky Australia. Now I am seeing on both eyes and trying to negotiate my way through the big German and English news forest, without stumbling. Then sometimes I think, sod it, and watch steam railway TV programmes. Keeps me from going off the rails. - Sorry, cannot resist that one 😀.

 

notamermaid

 

[Canal archive]

As long as there’s still some water our canal has a really nasty breach at the moment which is going to take some time to fix. We’re also fighting a nasty cold bug which is causing bad hacking coughs which is scaring people however much you test luckily it’s not Covid.

[notamermaid]

57 minutes ago, Canal archive said:

As long as there’s still some water our canal has a really nasty breach at the moment which is going to take some time to fix. We’re also fighting a nasty cold bug which is causing bad hacking coughs which is scaring people however much you test luckily it’s not Covid.

As I have heard people say here: "There is still the flu..." Apparently there is flu going round and colds as well, so people nervously go to the testing centres here as well.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

5 hours ago, NavyCruiser said:

We've just been in 7 German towns on the Rhine, Main, now Danube this past week, in Passau today.

The news on BBC Europe repeatedly are all about the restrictions & protests in the Netherlands & Austria.  

But all of our Viking tours & excursions went ahead as planned/scheduled in those 7 towns in Germany.  All felt normal & awesome in those beautiful towns, just need to show vaccine card & wear mask when entering indoors, otherwise no mask needed while touring outdoors. 

While Germany was great, both stops in Austria were canceled. 

Let's hope Budapest Hungary later this week is just as awesome as Germany...

Happy to read that you enjoyed Germany so much. All the lights are up now and my valley is looking lovely and quite magical. The magic can be found in these times and much of life is relaxed and feels still relatively normal for tourists. It has probably got a bit worse in the states that you sailed through in the last few days, we are struggling more and more. The politicians are getting more annoying and the press is adding their bit. But it is still possible to drown all this out with good cheer and pleasant company I would say and enjoy the rivers.

 

Hope you have a magical time in Budapest.

 

notamermaid

 

[notamermaid]

An eventful day in Germany. We have a new chancellor...

 

And we have in much of the country barred the unvaccinated from public life.

 

Here is a warning: should you as a tourist loose your vaccination certificate or your smartphone give up you become one of the "outlaws". No entry to any venue of leisure, museum, restaurant, hotel, bar, etc. In hot spots you may even be denied entry to shops and have to stay indoors (curfew sometime in the evening). Make a copy of your certificate, check the regulations and hope for the best. And keep a distance from the glühwein happy Germans that may creep closer than 1.50m on the markets. They may spread covid... As the regional TV programme wrote last week: "Covid is not over yet for the vaccinated". I am surprised they needed to make that statement... But as I have said before, the vaccinated are not vigilant enough anymore. I know it, you know it. This is going to be one bad winter if we do not all stick together. I am so glad Austria is in lock down. It keeps Germans from going to Ischgl. Do not get me wrong, it is just that we have kind of one tourism border closed now. Eight are still open.

 

notamermaid

 

Edited November 24, 2021 by notamermaid

[KathyK13]

4 hours ago, notamermaid said:

An eventful day in Germany. We have a new chancellor...

 

And we have in much of the country barred the unvaccinated from public life.

 

Here is a warning: should you as a tourist loose your vaccination certificate or your smartphone give up you become one of the "outlaws". No entry to any venue of leisure, museum, restaurant, hotel, bar, etc. In hot spots you may even be denied entry to shops and have to stay indoors (curfew sometime in the evening). Make a copy of your certificate, check the regulations and hope for the best. And keep a distance from the glühwein happy Germans that may creep closer than 1.50m on the markets. They may spread covid... As the regional TV programme wrote last week: "Covid is not over yet for the vaccinated". I am surprised they needed to make that statement... But as I have said before, the vaccinated are not vigilant enough anymore. I know it, you know it. This is going to be one bad winter if we do not all stick together. I am so glad Austria is in lock down. It keeps Germans from going to Ischgl. Do not get me wrong, it is just that we have kind of one tourism border closed now. Eight are still open.

 

notamermaid

I read about Olaf Scholz and his three party coalition taking power today.  Difficult time for a change in power; will be interesting to see how they approach the Covid spike and challenges facing the EU.  I hope they are successful with their green energy initiatives.

 

I wonder if the next step will be to shutdown the country similar to what is happening in Bavaria.  As you said, Covid is not over even for the vaccinated; here in our region of NY vaccinated people are not as careful.  Our vaccination rate is high (76% eligible population), yet our case rate is 400 out of 100,000, similar to what we were experiencing in the spring.  They aren't reporting how many of these cases are breakthrough infections but hospitals are nearing capacity.  It's disheartening.  I wish NYS would re-instate a mask mandate but it's up to counties and ours hasn't done so yet.   I wear my mask everywhere; don't understand why its such a problem for people.  There are some restaurants, theaters, and events that only admit the vaccinated and require masks, and we will be limiting our excursions to those places.  It's sad; six months ago we thought we would be in much better shape by now.

 

 

[gnome12]

@KathyK13 When you quote a post, it creates a box. Unless you are trying to respond individually to a number of points, it is better to put your comments outside the box (usually below, but can be above also). It makes it easier to see your comments directly. 

[steamboats]

13 hours ago, notamermaid said:

We have a new chancellor...

 

Not yet... He still has to be elected... We have a couple of names for ministers... but most are still blank.

 

steamboats

[notamermaid]

2 hours ago, steamboats said:

 

Not yet... He still has to be elected... We have a couple of names for ministers... but most are still blank.

 

steamboats

Alright, yes, that is of course technically correct. He is designated, to be sworn in in the second week of December.

 

notamermaid

 

[texasmomoftwo]

With the new chancellor coming the second week of December, do we know his status and thoughts on COVID, closing the country, etc? 

[texasmomoftwo]

Found what I was looking for. 

 

But would love to know what people think with new chancellor and COVID and potential lock down, closing of markets, etc.  We are still hopeful of coming. 

Edited November 25, 2021 by texasmomoftwo

[steamboats]

15 hours ago, texasmomoftwo said:

With the new chancellor coming the second week of December, do we know his status and thoughts on COVID, closing the country, etc? 

 

Things are changing very quickly... There was a meeting planned of the new Chancellor and the minister presidents of the states on Dec 9th. Now the old Chancellor Merkel says this is way too late. So there might be an earlier meeting with the minister president next week including Merkel and the future Chancellor Scholz. We still don´t know who will be the future federal minister of health. But Scholz already said he will install a Covid-19 task force with experts. Even if they say there won´t be a new lockdown with all the sudden developments you never can be sure.

 

steamboats

[rfamily6]

Currently scheduled to leave Budapest on Viking December 12th.  The purpose for doing this cruise was to experience the Christmas markets.  All the markets along the route have been canceled as they are located in Bavaria, with the exception of Vienna. Only the markets in Budapest are open.  Vienna is on lockdown and all shops and restaurants are closed.  Authorities will reassess on the 13th, but friends that live there expect the lockdown to be extended.  Not exactly sure what what we will do for two days in Vienna besides sit on the boat and that’s not what I paid for.  With the numbers continuing to increase throughout Germany, we are thinking we should probably cancel as it appears things may get more restrictive.  Thoughts? 

[steamboats]

@rfamily6 the lockdown in Austria is for 20 days and there´s only a reassessment on the 13th. If the lockdown is not lifted you will not even dock in Vienna. All cruise ships have to pass through Austria without docking anywhere (except for medical emergencies of course).

 

steamboats

[rfamily6]

5 hours ago, steamboats said:

@rfamily6 the lockdown in Austria is for 20 days and there´s only a reassessment on the 13th. If the lockdown is not lifted you will not even dock in Vienna. All cruise ships have to pass through Austria without docking anywhere (except for medical emergencies of course).

 

steamboats

 

Edited November 27, 2021 by rfamily6
Thanks for the response. Good to know.

[KathyK13]

11 hours ago, rfamily6 said:

Currently scheduled to leave Budapest on Viking December 12th.  The purpose for doing this cruise was to experience the Christmas markets.  All the markets along the route have been canceled as they are located in Bavaria, with the exception of Vienna. Only the markets in Budapest are open.  Vienna is on lockdown and all shops and restaurants are closed.  Authorities will reassess on the 13th, but friends that live there expect the lockdown to be extended.  Not exactly sure what what we will do for two days in Vienna besides sit on the boat and that’s not what I paid for.  With the numbers continuing to increase throughout Germany, we are thinking we should probably cancel as it appears things may get more restrictive.  Thoughts? 

What options is Viking giving you?  Can you re-book for next year or cancel and get a refund? I don't think conditions in Austria will have improved enough by the time you leave.  Also Budapest has canceled their Christmas markets.  Avalon canceled our Danube Christmas Markets cruise and we re-booked for next year.