I have been to Europe more than fifteen times. Maybe twenty, I’ve honestly lost count. But it wasn’t until 2018 that I had an occasion where I flew from the United States, landed at a country in Europe, changed planes, and flew on a connecting flight to *another* country in Europe. Since I was doing this alone for the first time I wanted to look up what to expect.
Every time I did a Google search, what kept coming up was “Schengen Zone”. Well, that’s great, but what is Schengen Zone. What does it mean? I wanted to know if I had to claim my bags in Amsterdam Schipol Airport and then check them again on to Berlin.
Did I need to show my passport in Amsterdam? How does this work? I honestly had no idea. I also could not find anything useful online, which added to my anxiety for the trip.
Schengen Area is essentially a “border free” area in Europe. Way back in 1985 an agreement was signed in Luxembourg eliminating checks between borders of certain countries in the agreement, and it was implemented in 1990. I first went to Europe *after* this agreement was in place, so I unknowingly benefited from it. I expected it to be like on TV or in the movies when you move from country to country and someone comes out of a little tollbooth type building and says “papers please”. But it wasn’t. The only tollbooth I stopped at on my very first European border crossing was Switzerland into France and it was a legit tollbooth, e.g. they wanted some francs. They didn’t care about our passports. As of today, most EU states are in the Schengen Zone meaning that you can travel freely between them. (As a reminder, due to Brexit, Britain is not in the EU so this may not apply if you’re changing planes in England or Scotland to fly to mainland Europe). I have had some random border checks when driving in Europe, and some countries where there is even a gated and manned border crossing- but most of them aren’t.
So what it meant for me on this trip to Berlin was, in Amsterdam, I did have to go through passport control. The lines were well marked with lanes for EU citizens and lanes for everyone else. I did not have to claim my bags, until I got to Berlin. And once in Berlin I had to choose if I was to go through the exit that said “something to declare” or “nothing to declare”.
On the way back to the US, it was the same. Leaving Berlin it was almost like a domestic flight, but once I got to Amsterdam I had to go through passport control. Then I had to go through multiple layers of security with Delta Airlines before boarding my flight. This was all done behind the traditional “security” lanes at the airport, meaning I didn’t have to remove my shoes or liquids, etc. On the return flight, I had 2.5 hours to change plans in AMS and go through passport control and I barely made the connection. That’s really the only concern. Now that I know, next time will be a lot easier!