Chapter 27
of
HOW TO EUROPE
The Complete Travelers Handbook
Internet edition. By John Bermont.
A page from
enjoy-europe.com
with photographer and author
John Bermont.
On the clock, Europe will always be ahead of the USA.
TIME
There are two baselines regarding time on Mother Earth. The
International Dateline runs north-south through the middle of
the Pacific Ocean. This line determines the turning of one day to
the next.
The other line, the Prime Meridian, runs north-south on the
other side of the world through the English city of Greenwich, a suburb of London.
Britain ruled the waves and continents at one time so they got first dibs on this.
The time at Greenwich is Greenwich Mean Time, a.k.a. GMT.
It is also called Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC for short. Why don't they call
it CUT? I think it's a French thing.
Time at places east of Greenwich can be expressed with a
plus sign in front of the GMT, e.g. Moscow is GMT+3
hours. For example, at noon in London it is 3 PM in Moscow.
GMT with a negative sign indicates time west of
Greenwich. Example, New York is GMT-5 hours. During Daylight Saving Time (what
a stooopid concept that is) New York is GMT-4 hours.
Knowing this is not especially important, but it won't hurt
you either. On the other hand, I recall the time I phoned a major
airline to buy a specially discounted ticket to Germany. The special offer was
due to expire at midnight Friday so I called on Friday evening from
Los Angeles to book my ticket. The special offer had already expired. That airline used
GMT as its clock and it was already early Saturday morning
GMT over there. With some begging on my part the agent gave me the
special fare anyway.
Time Zones
Because Europe is about a third of the way around the
world toward the east, the sun rises there before it does in America and
the time in Europe is always about a third
of a day ahead of ours. To find the time in countries of Western
Europe from these United States, use the following tables.
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Table 1
The four European Time zones
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Western
WET*
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Iceland, Ireland, Portugal, United Kingdom
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Central
CET
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Albania, Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia,
Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France,
Germany, Hungary, Italy, Liechtenstein,
Luxembourg, Macedonia, Netherlands,
Norway, Poland, Serbia,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland, and Vatican City.
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Eastern
EET
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Belarus, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Greece,
Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Romania, Turkey,
Ukraine
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Moscow
MSK
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Western Russia
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* WET is Western European Time, and so forth.
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Table 2
Time calculation table.
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To find the time in the European Time Zone below:
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add the number of hours corresponding to your USA Time Zone
- - - American Time Zones - - -
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EST
Eastern
GMT+5
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CST
Central
GMT+6
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MST
Mountain
GMT+7
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PST
Pacific
GMT+8
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AKST
Alaska
GMT+9
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HST
Hawaii
GMT+10
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WET
GMT
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5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
CET
GMT-1
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6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
EET
GMT-2
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7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
MSK
GMT-3
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8 |
9 |
10 |
11 |
12 |
13 |
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See the notes below on Daylight Saving Time.
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Example Calculations
Problem:What time is it in Paris, France when it is noon in Chicago?
Solution: Table 1 shows that France is in the Central European Time
zone (CET). If you live in Chicago you know that it is in the USA
Central Time zone (CST). Find the intersection of the row and column
in Table 2. This shows that there is a 7 hour time difference
between Chicago and Paris. Then add seven hours to noon,
12:00, in Chicago and you get 19:00 on the 24 hour clock in
Paris. Deduct 12 and the answer is 7:00 PM in Paris.
Problem:What time is it in Los Angeles when it is 8:00 PM in Istanbul, Turkey?
Solution:Los Angeles is on USA Pacific Standard Time (PST) and Istanbul is
on European Eastern Time (EET). Table 2 shows that the time
difference is 10 hours. Convert the Istanbul time to the 24 hour clock by
adding 12 hours. This is then 20:00, which I like to write as 20h00. Subtract 10 hours
from 20h00 and you have 10 hours. This is the same on the 24 hour clock and the 12 hour
clock. So, at 8:00 PM in Istanbul it is 10:00 AM in Los Angeles.
Daylight Saving Time and Summer Time
Daylight Saving Time is practiced in most countries of
Europe. It is called Summer Time. Some countries have adopted
it only recently, and some haven't tried it yet.
The period for Daylight Saving Time in the USA is from 02h00 local time on the second Sunday of March
to 02h00 on the the first Sunday of November. However this is a state issue. Common
sense prevails in Arizona, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico where DST is not observed.
The period for Summer Time in most European countries is different, of course.
It starts at 01h00 GMT on the last Sunday in March and ends at 01h00 GMT on the last Sunday
in October.
So there are two weeks in the middle of March and a week at the end of October when the
Time Calculation Table above is not accurate. Also, Russia has a slightly different way of
doing things.
Daylight Saving Time and Summer Time have been around for decades but are still controversial.
Countries change the start/stop dates now and then (USA 2007) just for amusement and some countries opt out.
Consult the current Thomas Cook European Timetable,
especially the notes in the front, for information on which
countries have adopted Summer Time.
It is always a good idea to check the local time when
crossing borders. I once missed my breakfast in Italy because I
had not reset my watch after crossing the night before from
Switzerland, before Switzerland adopted Summer Time. But not
all local clocks are on time. Clocks in train stations in Portugal
and Italy can be out of synchronization by several minutes or more. Que sera sera.
GMT does not go on Daylight Saving Time.
24 Hour Time
Time is officially kept on the 24 hour basis on train
schedules, on NO PARKING signs, and on other items of
importance. But most clocks are 12 hour clocks.
If a time of 1300 or greater is stated on a schedule, subtract
12 and add PM. Get used to the concept of 14h00 being 2:00 in
the afternoon, and 2100 being 9:00 in the evening. Even some
Europeans get confused and can slip into thinking that 14:00 is
4:00 PM. Your train left at 2:00 PM. Stephanie's aunt was to have picked her up at
the Milan station at 14:50. Somehow Anita figured that was 12:50 and went to the station
two hours early — no Stephanie in sight, followed by trans-Atlantic phone calls and
more confusion. Stephanie parked herself near the front door of the station until the adults
got their stuff assembled and Anita picked her up. I use my trusty alarm
chronograph when traveling in Europe with the time indication
set on 24 hour notation.
If it is a whole number of hours, the time may be written
simply as 15h. If it is 3:30 PM, it may be written as 15.30 or as
15h30.
Note: I've deliberately mixed up and written these 24 hour
times in different ways. There is no uniformity in Europe either.
This is more training to prepare you for the various ways of
doing things in Europe's four dozen countries.
Telling Time
Time is expressed in different ways. For instance, 2:30 in
America is "half past two." In Britain it is "half two." In Holland
it is "half three." And in Holland, tien voor half drie (ten before
half three) is 2:20. Be careful that you don't miss an appointment
because of these little quirks of custom.
DATES -- INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM
Flipped
There is a major difference in the way dates are written.
Europeans use the day/month/year arrangement rather than the
month/day/year system used in America. Thus, to you 6/2/13 is
June 2, 2013. To the hotel keeper in France that is February 6,
2013. You didn't intend to spend February in Paris, and he
certainly won't hold your room until June.
Dashes and Slashes
The date is commonly written with points, as 6.2.13, rather
than the dashes or slashes common in the USA. To avoid
mix-ups, get into the habit of writing dates with the month
abbreviated rather than numbered, i.e., 6 Feb 13. Due to the
common Roman origin of calendar month names, the three letter
abbreviations are almost universally recognized. A system that is
coming into general use in timetables is to use a Roman numeral
for the month. Thus, February 6, 2013 would be 6 II 13 and
June 2, 2013 would be 2 VI 13.
Your Documents
You can do little about your driver's license or birth
certificate if it is dated in the American system. Just be prepared
for official headaches if you need to show these in the small
towns. A
little number that looks wrong to a bureaucrat or police officer
can be a mighty big headache.
Calendars
Last but not least, here is one more thing that is different
between the USA and Europe. American calendars start with
Sunday and run across the page to Saturday. In Europe,
most calendars start with Monday and run across to Sunday. I sent an
American wall calendar to my friend Paula in Holland. She
made a note of a party just by the position of the day on the
calendar, out of habit. When she prepared to go she followed the
column positions. She sure surprised the host being a day early!
Even worse, some European calendars run the days of the
week down the side rather than across the top. These also start
with Monday. Very very confusing. It is easier to read rune
stones.
This piece of a Dutch office calendar shows the different way that dates are presented.
The first column is the week number, a standard in the business world of Europe.
So the second column is Monday. The last column is Sunday. Blue days are weekends
or holidays when nobody works. Queen's Day, April 30, had been the most famous holiday
in the Netherlands but the last one was in 2013. Koninginnedag
has been eliminated with the resignation of Queen Beatrix. See
Queen's Day Photos
for what we'll be missing, but a new holiday is in the works to celebrate the new king.
Moveable holidays Hemelvaartdag,
Ascension Day, and Pinksteren, Whit Monday or Pentacost, depend on the date for Easter. See
Prime Travel Data for information on that
and many other items of interest. [Calendar-20130517]
NOTE TO READERS
I welcome questions and comments. If you have any concerns about your trip to
Europe that have not been covered well enough in this chapter do not hesitate to write and ask.
My email address is
johnbermont@enjoy-europe.com.
When you write please include as much detail as possible. There are about 50 countries in Europe.
It will help me answer if you mention the countries and/or cities you plan to visit.
I will reply in a day or two.
Don't forget to scroll through the Table of Contents below. The other 29 chapters of
HOW TO EUROPE
are also available, free to read on line.
For a check-off punchlist of everything go to The Finale,
Packing List and Last Call:
For Travel In Europe.
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