Possible Trip To The Netherlands To Visit My Daughter Now In Planning Stages

Discussion in 'Travel & Vacation' started by Yvonne Smith, Jul 4, 2021.

  1. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    As I have mentioned before, my only daughter just took a new job in the Netherlands, and she will be there for at least the next several years.
    My grandmother came here from Germany in 1902, so Robin said it would be fun for us to travel into Germany and actually SEE where my grandmother was from.
    I would just love to go over there and visit the Netherlands and also travel around Germany with her !

    Several things have to happen before I could do something like this, and the first one is that I have to get a passport. I have never been out of the US except for one of the walking day trips into Mexico from California, and I didn’t need a passport to do that.

    The main thing that has been concerning me is the mask requirements that they have on the airplanes and going for such a long plane trip.
    With my heart failure, it is hard for me to breathe, even with nothing covering my face and nose, and when I have to wear a mask (like to the fitness center), I am literally gasping for air in minutes, just trying to walk down the hall to get there.
    Sometimes, I have to stop and gasp air for a while to make the trip, especially after I have swam for an hour and I am already tired.

    Anyway, today, I was looking on Amazon to see what they had that might help someone breathing on a long plane trip where masks are required, and I think that I have found a personal air purifier that would work.
    It is a little device that blows air into the mask, so you always have fresh air, and there are several settings for the device.
    It works for about 11 hours on the low setting, and can be re-charged via usb, so it should work all the way there, and getting through the airports also.

    I was thinking that something like this might help @Marci Miller with her hospital cook’s job, too; since she has to wear a mask for hours at work.

    4F806EDA-8C62-429D-B3B0-BD226F33DE71.jpeg
     
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  2. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    Sure hope you can go. Sounds like a heck of a trip.
     
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  3. Marci Miller

    Marci Miller Very Well-Known Member
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    Aww, I appreciate you thinking of me but with our uniform requirements I wouldn't be able to have that on while working. Mainly because it would be a safety hazard to me because it could get caught in equipment or burned on cooking equipment or the tubing could get cut on something. Or if a piece of it fell off into the food...that sort of thing. Might be worth getting later on if need be. Thank you though!
     
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  4. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    I can see where that could definitely be a problem in the kitchen, @Marci Miller . I had not thought of all that. Do you think that something like this would help me on the long airplane trip ?
    I ordered one. It was marked down from $49 to $29, and had a 35% discount on top of that, so it was under $20 for the whole price, and I used one of my gift cards from doing surveys .

    I figured that I can test it out here at home, and if it doesn’t help me breathe better, it is returnable to Amazon; so it is worth trying it out. I would also like to travel out to see my two sons who live in Idaho/Washington, and I haven’t seen them for a couple of years now.
    I was looking at prices for a round trip bus or train ticket, and the bus is pretty reasonable , especially for seniors; but any kind of travel requires people to be masked.
     
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  5. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I'd call the airline next week and chat with them. They may have a solution that won't require you to jump through hoops. It will give you time to plan.

    Oh, and congrats on the potential trip!!! My mother was British and my father's parents were German. I've only been out of the country to a Club Med in the Caribbean. I started to apply for a passport once but I have no idea exactly where and when my parents were born. Damned screwed up family, I started to fill out the app and didn't have a way to get most of the info...and that was pre-9/11. So I gave up.
     
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    Last edited: Jul 4, 2021
  6. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    Calling the airline is a great idea, @John Brunner ! Since Robin is in their Delta SkyMiles program because she travels so often, it might be better for her to call. She would be the one arranging the trip for me in any case, and would probably be better able to check for information .
    She said she thought there might be some kind of work-around for people with breathing problems.
    It would be at least several months and maybe next year before I would be traveling; so there should be plenty of time to work out the details.
    I have to know where and when my parents were born to get a passport ? That might be interesting for me, too.
    When did your dad’s German parents arrive in the United States ?
     
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  7. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I believe my father was born in 1919. He had siblings. They were all born in the states (Pennsylvania.) He was not the oldest. So they arrived maybe as early as 1910. I do know that they were divorced.

    Here's the State Department page with instructions.
    Here is the application.

    The second page asks for Mother/Father Date of Birth and Place of Birth. They need the same data for Most Recent Spouse. Heck, I was married for less than 2 years and divorced in the late 70s. And I don't have that info for my parents, and they are both deceased. That's where I stopped filling the thing out.
     
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  8. Marci Miller

    Marci Miller Very Well-Known Member
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    It could very well help you. I'm just concerned about whether this would keep COVID droplets out and whether or not the airline would let you use it.
     
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  9. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    According the the information on Amazon, and the little video they showed, it does keep any kind of covid out, and one lady who wrote a review said she used it on the airlines and they were fine with it, so I don’t think that there will be any problem with it being acceptable. From the information provided, this mask was actually developed for people who might need a special mask with a HEPA filter for covid safety.

    My actual concern is not that I am worried in any way about getting covid.
    I am concerned that I can’t breathe well enough with a mask on, and might just pass out on the airplane having to wear a mask for so many hours. This looks like it will draw fresh air in for me to breathe and help me to not feel like I am suffocating all of the time, which is what the masks do to me.
    Breathing is important to me !
    When it arrives then I can try it out here at home and see of it helps me to breathe even with a mask on. If it doesn’t, I will return it; and if it does work, then I can keep it to use on the trip to see Robin.
     
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  10. Marci Miller

    Marci Miller Very Well-Known Member
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    I understand. I have COPD and struggle for air 8 hrs a day at work. I think you should try it at home first.
     
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  11. Mary Robi

    Mary Robi Veteran Member
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    For 50 years, I had been putting the wrong birthplace for my dad (long story....lies had been told). For my latest passport, I put the correct location. I wasn't sure if that was going to trigger anything, but apparently not.
     
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  12. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    So they never rejected the first application as having defective data????
     
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  13. Mary Robi

    Mary Robi Veteran Member
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    Nope. I figure as long as you don't say North Korea or Iran, they don't really care.

    I had always believed what I had been told about his birth and there was no truth about it. I never actually saw his birth certificate or passport. We don't even know if HE knew that he wasn't born where he thought he was. The parents he would have listed weren't even his legal parents, either.
     
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  14. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I got similar stories. I have no idea what the deal was with either set of grandparents.

    My mother was British and referred to 2 different maiden names. I guess the upside to having someone that crazy is you don't get wedded to anything they say, so you're never disappointed. I know her birth mother died when she was young, I have no idea if her father remarried. When my mother died in '06 we went through her stuff, and the copies of the birth data (looked like they were printed from microfiche) were conflicting and confusing.

    That's good to know I don't have to be exacting with that passport stuff. Maybe I'll make a phone call so I got a state department employee on record making that recommendation so I don't get busted...it is a post-9/11 world.
     
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  15. D'Ellyn Dottir

    D'Ellyn Dottir Very Well-Known Member
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    @Yvonne Smith, I hope you get to go. The Netherlands is a wonderful country. I found the people open and friendly, and surprisingly speak English with more of an American accent than is often the case elsewhere in Europe. If possible, if you like gardens, I'd recommend timing your trip to be there at peak season for Keukenhof Gardens, which is spectacular. Cologne, Aachen and Trier are also great spots to visit in Germany that aren't far from Nederland. I loved the convenience of train travel throughout western Europe.
     
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