Expensive overstay

Thanks for publishing Catharine Hamm’s article on extended European Union stays as regulated by the Schengen agreement [“Before You Book a Long Europe Stay,” March 29]. Until her article, I had seen nothing in the news media nor travel sites that addressed this law. When my wife and I retired, we took a European trip that lasted four months. On departing the EU, we were fined $500 each for an overstay of 26 days.

MATT PAWLEY

Palm Desert

We visited the iconic Brandenburg Gate in Berlin (pictured with Hamm’s column) on an excursion during a Baltic cruise. I vividly remember the frightening images of World War II and the newsreels of armies streaming past its columns.

Now, just as you proceed through, there is a Starbucks.

KAREN MARKS

Los Angeles