It just dawned on me last night that on your train ride from Amsterdam to Paris, we will be leaving one country and entering a new one (duh!). I am curious how this works, is it the same as coming through the airports? Is it a faster, slower process or about the same?
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Amsterdam and Paris are in the Schengen area, and there are no border controls : you board the train and alight as easily as if it were a commuter train.
The may be random police checks in the train, but they are generally in search of pot/weed/etc ...
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Thanks, that is good to hear. One more silly question, as I am new to travel abroad. Will my passport be stamped when we leave Paris? I know that it is corny but I would like to have it to show that I was there. I know, I am very silly :-)
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ts1fsu, getting them to stamp your passport is pretty tough. Some border officials refuse to do it because it looks like you%26#39;re cheating on a neighboring nation%26#39;s visa laws. Mostly, they haven%26#39;t had to use the stamp in a long time and the ink pad has dried out.
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Well shoot, I guess that is good to know. We just went to get our passports last week, so like a little kid in a candy store I was already thinking of where I was going to get that stamped %26quot;world traveler%26quot; look. LOL
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ps - it is important to note that although you will not be going through immigration, the Thalys trains are often greeted by teams of customs agents and their drug sniffing dogs. Because certain products are legal in Amsterdam, it does not mean they are legal here and a train would be a VERY BAD way to bring anything like that in.
Just saying...
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Yup. I remember once, while alighting the Thalys at Paris Nord, I saw a police dog very %26quot;horny%26quot; about the retractable footsteps...
Guess what was hiiden within ? ;-)
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Thanks for the heads up, but I was not thinking of bring those types of souviniers. LOL Maybe a nice pair of wooden shoes for my 2 year old daughter. Though the advise is sure to be helpful to others using this means of travel :-)
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%26gt;%26gt; LOL Maybe a nice pair of wooden shoes for my 2 year old daughter. Though the advise is sure to be helpful to others using this means of travel :-) %26lt;%26lt;
Heck, soles make a good hiding-place !
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Wooden clogs - I had(still have, come to think of it) a really comfortable pair of leather topped wooden clogs that were ideal for plane/train travel as they could be discretely slipped off and easily put on. I got stopped twice going through the nothing to declare channels in them (and this was all before the heightened security) whilst they had a look at them (to look for hidden compartments I suppose) I was a bit younger then, but still nobody%26#39;s idea of a smuggler, I wouldn%26#39;t have thought. I don%26#39;t wear them to travel now because the buckles set off the metal detectors. Just too stressful all round to wear !
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Too funny that my comment about purchasing some wooden shoes for my 2 year old has turned into a %26quot;how to%26quot; smuggle thread (lol). Maybe I should stay away from them all together, I don%26#39;t want her getting any ideas :-)
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