Is Europe's current freeze slowing/stopping you?

I've been watching the weather since last year and especially since the freeze began, I was told that the freeze was supposed to start letting up (looked like it started to, now its dipping again)

I leave in 2 weeks for Switzerland and will be in Germany two weeks after that I hear its bitterly colder than it normally is/has been; I have experienced (not lived in) frigid weather because from time to time we see temperatures drop like that too and it doesn't last too long and it doesn't get quite that cold (but close).

So, I'm very familiar with the possibility of ice, snow, freezing rain, sleet, etc. I plan to move around in Switzerland and will need to move around a bit in Germany too; do you think this will slow me down some?

not stopping me, but i dont go to france until May.

More than February/March is usually? Nah, you'll still be able to set your watch by the trains in those countries (though of course you'll be doing more museums and cafes and those sorts of things instead of hiking outside for hours then). To be honest though in the Netherlands at least the thaw has now broken as of two days ago- no more getting out on the canal ice in Amsterdam! - so I doubt you'll notice anything unusual from the cold freeze by the time you're around.

Obviously though if a blizzard moves through while you're in Switzerland, well don't be totally surprised if it happens cause no one can plan the weather!

Andromeda wrote:More than February/March is usually? Nah, you'll still be able to set your watch by the trains in those countries (though of course you'll be doing more museums and cafes and those sorts of things instead of hiking outside for hours then). To be honest though in the Netherlands at least the thaw has now broken as of two days ago- no more getting out on the canal ice in Amsterdam! - so I doubt you'll notice anything unusual from the cold freeze by the time you're around.

Obviously though if a blizzard moves through while you're in Switzerland, well don't be totally surprised if it happens cause no one can plan the weather!

Spot on I def will be doing mostly museums and such, I don't do hikes, but I would do outside walks/treks in the city & stuff if it were warm enough.

If a blizzard does occur I can still get to a museum I want to visit or does that cause disruption to ground transportation? (I suppose if it got bad enough it would?).

You can walk on ice in the canal in Amsterdam? Yes I noticed its warmed up a 2-3 days ago, of course some places are still seeing snow but at least its not below 0 or close to it.

mynetdude wrote:

Andromeda wrote:More than February/March is usually? Nah, you'll still be able to set your watch by the trains in those countries (though of course you'll be doing more museums and cafes and those sorts of things instead of hiking outside for hours then). To be honest though in the Netherlands at least the thaw has now broken as of two days ago- no more getting out on the canal ice in Amsterdam! - so I doubt you'll notice anything unusual from the cold freeze by the time you're around.

Obviously though if a blizzard moves through while you're in Switzerland, well don't be totally surprised if it happens cause no one can plan the weather!

Spot on I def will be doing mostly museums and such, I don't do hikes, but I would do outside walks/treks in the city & stuff if it were warm enough.

If a blizzard does occur I can still get to a museum I want to visit or does that cause disruption to ground transportation? (I suppose if it got bad enough it would?).

You can walk on ice in the canal in Amsterdam? Yes I noticed its warmed up a 2-3 days ago, of course some places are still seeing snow but at least its not below 0 or close to it.

It honestly depends on the country when it comes to ground transport- the Dutch rail system was a complete mess all last week as they very unfortunately can't even handle 5cm of snow without going insane, but transport within the city was just fine. My bet is Switzerland and Germany really won't have issues as they're much more used to loads of snow, and you'd be exceptionally unlucky to run into conditions bad enough to make things stop altogether (a few delays probably aren't terribly uncommon in a snow storm though, it's inevitable).

And yep, it doesn't happen every year in Amsterdam proper due to being a city/ near the ocean, but this year the canals froze over! (It's much more common in the rest of the Netherlands further inland for this to happen.) Sunday was the last day for it, but I put some pics from last week here if you're interested.

Ditto Adromeda's point above - short of really bad storms, you shouldn't really expect any major delays in either Germany or Switzerland.

On the flip side, a major storm can be fun to experience - If you're not in a rush to work, or in an ambulance, or stuck somewhere without food, that is.