Page 7 of 34

Re: International travel

Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2020 10:22 pm
by Little waster
sTeamTraen wrote:
Mon Nov 23, 2020 7:53 pm
Great news for a..eholes! You now have your own travel agency!
Typhoid Travel. Bodes well for the cleanliness of their destinations.

Re: International travel

Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2020 12:14 pm
by Bird on a Fire
The government is changing its rules for international visitors from the 15th December- instead of needing to isolate for 14 days, you can isolate for 5 days and take a test (privately).

So it looks like I might see my family this year, though outside somewhere rather than house visits methinks.

Re: International travel

Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2020 4:55 pm
by sTeamTraen
The supreme a..eholes who live at the intersection of COVID twattery, vaccine twattery, and being comfortably off, are getting very exercised about how their right to travel on aircraft might be limited by *checks notes* private companies who are free to impose their own conditions of carriage in a market economy.

Re: International travel

Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2020 5:41 pm
by shpalman
I am negative for teh covids and it's less than 72 hours until my flight so that should help with getting let back in to Italy.

Re: International travel

Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2020 7:58 am
by shpalman
shpalman wrote:
Wed Dec 02, 2020 5:41 pm
I am negative for teh covids and it's less than 72 hours until my flight so that should help with getting let back in to Italy.
Got another swab on Monday just to make sure and I was negative on that one too.

Re: International travel

Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2020 7:58 am
by shpalman

Re: International travel

Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2020 7:28 pm
by shpalman
And no going to the Canary Islands either.

Well, you can go, you just can't come back.

Well, you can come back, you just have to self-isolate for 14 days.

Yeah like they're actually going to check on you.

Re: International travel

Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2020 7:38 pm
by Sciolus
shpalman wrote:
Thu Dec 10, 2020 7:28 pm
And no going to the Canary Islands either.

Well, you can go, you just can't come back.

Well, you can come back, you just have to self-isolate for 14 days.

Yeah like they're actually going to check on you.
BBC story:
Travellers returning to the UK from Spain's Canary Islands from Saturday morning must self-isolate for two weeks, the transport secretary has said.

Grant Shapps said this was because of rising infection rates on the islands.

The Canary Islands are popular with winter holidaymakers, being one of the few parts of Europe warm enough for beach holidays.
I wonder if there might be some connection between paragraphs 2 and 3?

Re: International travel

Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2020 10:00 pm
by sTeamTraen
Sciolus wrote:
Thu Dec 10, 2020 7:38 pm
Travellers returning to the UK from Spain's Canary Islands from Saturday morning must self-isolate for two weeks, the transport secretary has said.

Grant Shapps said this was because of rising infection rates on the islands.

The Canary Islands are popular with winter holidaymakers, being one of the few parts of Europe warm enough for beach holidays.
I wonder if there might be some connection between paragraphs 2 and 3?
The Canaries have required a negative PCR test taken less than 72 hours before travelling from all visitors, including those from other parts of Spain. since November. Their cases/100k/14 days has been stable at around 70 for a month, and in the last week has climbed to just under 100, which seems to be the FCO's threshold (unless they use a per-7 days value). For comparison, the UK is at about 350/100k/14 days.

We had a modest percentage of our normal number of tourists this summer here in Majwakah with hardly any cases reported either among tourists or locals. Of course, prevalence in the north of Europe was low then, but we were still surprised, especially since the tourists were not all very good at wearing masks. But reports seemed to show that most of the spread was among local residents, notable teenagers having parties. (If anyone ever tells you that southern Europeans are civilised and don't go in for binge drinking, point them at the words "botellón" and "kalimocho".)

Re: International travel

Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2020 9:47 am
by Opti
I don't know about your manor, steamy, but Brit 2nd home owners here are losing their sh.t about possible Covid flight restrictions starting on 1st Jan.
They seem to see their FoM as some inalienable British right. ;)

Re: International travel

Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2020 9:58 am
by shpalman
The thing is, that I should always have the right to enter Italy since I am resident here (going home is always allowed) and I should also always have the right to enter the UK because I am a British citizen. Of course, either country could impose two weeks of self-isolation and/or mandatory testing. Flights could stop operating if there aren't enough people travelling to make it worth it.

But currently the UK is on Italy's "C list" (two weeks of self-isolation can be avoided if you have a negative test less than 72 hours before arriving or less than 48 hours after arriving) along with most other EU and EEA countries, and that's what will be easier to change after the 1st of January. Of course different countries have different rules and it's easier to enforce rules between countries which don't have land borders.

Re: International travel

Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2020 11:02 am
by Little waster
shpalman wrote:
Fri Dec 11, 2020 9:58 am
the UK is on Italy's "C list"
I think we can all guess what the C stands for.

Re: International travel

Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2020 11:14 am
by shpalman
Little waster wrote:
Fri Dec 11, 2020 11:02 am
shpalman wrote:
Fri Dec 11, 2020 9:58 am
the UK is on Italy's "C list"
I think we can all guess what the C stands for.
It's the third letter of the alphabet, behind A and B, which are used respectively to denote countries which aren't really separate countries (Vatican and San Marino) and countries for which there are no restrictions (most of Europe which isn't in list C).

The C list is (or was last week anyway) Belgium, France, Netherlands, Czechia, Spain, and the UK. These are the countries for which you need a negative test and have to notify your local health authority when you arrive.

To be fair, only some of them are c.nts.

Not that the Italian for c.nt begins with a c, and it's wouldn't even be an insult if it were.

Then there's a D list of safe non-European countries for which two weeks of isolation is required, list F of countries from which it is explicitly forbidden to enter Italy, and list E is any country not on any other list for which you need a good reason to enter and still need to isolate for two weeks.

I presume Italy could move the UK from list C to list E after the 1st of January. The Italian for c.nt doesn't begin with e either.

Re: International travel

Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2020 11:16 am
by Opti
shpalman wrote:
Fri Dec 11, 2020 9:58 am
The thing is, that I should always have the right to enter Italy since I am resident here (going home is always allowed) and I should also always have the right to enter the UK because I am a British citizen.
...
Same goes for me in Spain. Italy, not so much.

Re: International travel

Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2020 11:19 am
by shpalman
Opti wrote:
Fri Dec 11, 2020 11:16 am
shpalman wrote:
Fri Dec 11, 2020 9:58 am
The thing is, that I should always have the right to enter Italy since I am resident here (going home is always allowed) and I should also always have the right to enter the UK because I am a British citizen.
...
Same goes for me in Spain. Italy, not so much.
If you'd only been in Spain for the previous 14 days you'd be allowed into Italy with a negative covid test; I'm not actually sure if you even need a "good reason" for travel right now.

Re: International travel

Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2020 11:48 am
by Opti
I'm travelling precisely nowhere in the near future, except for the local ayuntamiento. It's got everything we need.
From the weekend we're allowed to go anywhere in Málaga province, but we won't.
Even Estepona (10km) is too busy for me. Marbs and Málaga city can f.ck right off.

The only problem is that there's some good shops 5km away from us, but in the wrong direction. Means we have to cross over to Cádiz province. There's always 'edge' anomalies and we live right on one ;)
Naturally, the Guardia will have an almost permanent blockade on the first roundabout in the province.

Re: International travel

Posted: Fri Dec 11, 2020 11:55 am
by shpalman
If things ease up a bit I might try visiting England in March or so.

Until then I don't intend to go further than my lab, the supermarket (which is near the lab) or, for variety, the other branch of the supermarket.

Re: International travel

Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2020 10:59 pm
by sTeamTraen
Opti wrote:
Fri Dec 11, 2020 9:47 am
I don't know about your manor, steamy, but Brit 2nd home owners here are losing their sh.t about possible Covid flight restrictions starting on 1st Jan.
They seem to see their FoM as some inalienable British right. ;)
I don't think there are all that many UK second home owners in Mallorca. The Germans seem to have the lion's share of the "swallow"/"snowbird" places here. Maybe Menorca?

We do have a few Brexity types, but I have the impression that the Brits here are on average a teeny bit more clued-up than those on the mainland. (Everything is relative, though. Just last week we had someone asking for confirmation that they didn't need to upgrade the white (!) paper NIE that they had thought for the past 6 years was sufficient documentation of their residency status to a TIE. They were told to get a wiggle on!)

Re: International travel

Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2020 7:08 pm
by Bird on a Fire
Test-to-Release scheme off to a flying start:

- list of accepted providers published at 7pm the day before scheme started
- test providers sold out within hours
- tests are by post, and results can take a further 48 hours, so the period of isolation can only be reduced from 10 to 8 days, at a cost exceeding £100
- airport testing centres apparently excluded, which is odd as they'd be a logical place for passengers to register for the scheme

tldr the kind of competence we've come to expect from the UK government

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2020 ... otic-start

Re: International travel

Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2020 7:10 pm
by Bird on a Fire
I can't work out if I need to do it. I'm only staying in the UK for 9 days over Christmas - is travelling to the airport for a return flight an allowable exception to the isolation rules?

Re: International travel

Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2020 7:13 pm
by shpalman
Bird on a Fire wrote:
Tue Dec 15, 2020 7:10 pm
I can't work out if I need to do it. I'm only staying in the UK for 9 days over Christmas - is travelling to the airport for a return flight an allowable exception to the isolation rules?
Yes I think it's ok.

The postal test I took was from a provider not on that list, but it did offer a 24 hour service on paying quite a bit more money.

Re: International travel

Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2020 7:35 pm
by Bird on a Fire
shpalman wrote:
Tue Dec 15, 2020 7:13 pm
Bird on a Fire wrote:
Tue Dec 15, 2020 7:10 pm
I can't work out if I need to do it. I'm only staying in the UK for 9 days over Christmas - is travelling to the airport for a return flight an allowable exception to the isolation rules?
Yes I think it's ok.

The postal test I took was from a provider not on that list, but it did offer a 24 hour service on paying quite a bit more money.
Ok, thanks. Day 5 for me is the 25th, when I won't be able to post anything, so even with super-speedy delivery and processing the most I could get is a full day of 'release' and to be honest I'm not that keen to be going round people's houses or down the pub or anything anyway. I will probably save my cash for takeaways.

Like many millennials I'm feeling nostalgic for my teenage years when a six-pack of cider in some random outdoors area was considered a cool night out. I wonder if I can persuade any of my friends to come round to hang out on the fire escape/car park of my mum's building.


It's going to be a very strange Christmas this year. We've worked out a segregation-ventilation policy that should allow me and Mrs BoaF to stay at my mum's with a minimum of risk. In the loft room, which has an en-suite, for most of the time, including all meals and eating and drinking. Popping downstairs occasionally for a masked-and-distanced chat with the windows open. Any guests can sit outside the front door and we'll chat through the window. My mum's taken two weeks off work to avoid that opportunity for spreading.

Re: International travel

Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2020 12:53 am
by Brightonian
The Netherlands ban air travel from the United Kingdom. Presumably other countries can't be far behind.

Re: International travel

Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2020 9:41 am
by Woodchopper
Brightonian wrote:
Sun Dec 20, 2020 12:53 am
The Netherlands ban air travel from the United Kingdom. Presumably other countries can't be far behind.
From the announcement
The government is closely monitoring developments abroad with regard to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and is considering additional measures regarding other modes of transport. Over the next few days, together with other EU member states, it will explore the scope for further limiting the risk of the new strain of the virus being brought over from the UK.
https://www.government.nl/latest/news/2 ... ed-kingdom

Looks like Britain may be quarantined if other countries follow, and with other forms of transport.

Re: International travel

Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2020 11:22 am
by Woodchopper
Belgium bans UK flights and the Eurostar for 24 hours
https://www.politico.eu/article/belgium ... trictions/

Germany considering banning flights
https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschl ... bf0979-amp