weltfrieden

I've been with the four eyes tribe since Nixon was still in office... so a long time lifetime member.

I have have broken a pair of glasses (lenses or frames) for almost 30 years, so I almost never bring my spare glasses when I travel overseas. Yes, I know it's a dumb thing to do and it has finally caught up to me after 30 years. My favorite frame's bridge broke while I arrived in Europe this week. I'm now back to my old nerdy look with the bridged taped with electrical tape that the hotel concierge gave me.

This morning, the hotel concierge lady accompanied me to a local glasses shop to buy a new pair of glasses. She drove the hotel's shuttle van and we found one in about 20 minutes. The shop had 3 employees and none spoke English.(shocking... considering it's located just outside of Berlin) I brought along my phone which has my doctor's handwritten prescription on it. Apparently they don't write prescription the same way in Germany? I had to call my doctor who had to talk to the concierge who translated it to the glasses store employee... but at least now I will have a new pair by tomorrow afternoon. They didn't have my tricky prescription lenses in stock and had to order them. Holy fancy Moses... why are glasses frames/lenses soooo expensive in Germany compared to the US? if only I had brought my spare pair with me to begin with.

The hotel concierge spent almost 2 hours with me and I really appreciated that. I want to give her a tip, but not sure how much one should tip in this type of situation.

Sorry for the ranting... I'm just wondering if there are fellow four eyes tribe members who has done something similar...

Efrem

I never carry a spare pair. Fortunately, I can see well enough out of one eye to pass the driver's license vision test, and well enough out of the other for close work, so I can survive without them if need be. I just don't have much binocular vision then.

That said, I lost my glasses on a flight in China a bit less than a year ago. Our guide took me to a small optician's shop in Xi'an, where nobody spoke English. He went in first, telling us that if we went in the prices would double. (As it happens, that wasn't the case, the prices were clearly posted, but it could have been and it was a wise precaution for him to take.) They read my prescription from my sunglasses and had the replacement pair ready within an hour. The price was $65, about $200 less than a comparable pair would have been in the States. Not enough of a saving to justify a trip for a new pair of glasses, but a pleasant surprise.

As for your question on tipping: we tipped the guide nicely at the end of the tour, but that included everything. Don't know what I would have tipped for just the eyeglasses shopping trip.)

(Last month somebody stepped on that pair of glasses and crushed them. My fault; they fell out of my pocket and I didn't notice until I heard a crunching sound and looked to see what it was. Had to pay U.S. prices for the pair I have now.)

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

"The price was $65, about $200 less than a comparable pair would have been in the States."

I think you've been buying your eyeglasses at the wrong place in the U.S. If there's a Sears Optical or a JC Penney Optical near you, give them a try next time.

dimramon

Not sure why that is shocking, but I don't want to get into this...


I never carry a pair of extra glasses. I also think of myself as someone who wears glasses, not a "four eyes", which I think is a childish term.

milepig

Only readers for me as my distance vision is great. But, since I can't read much of anything without them, I always pack at least two pairs.

GRALISTAIR

I never carry a spare pair on personal travel. If on business I carry my prescription safety glasses and my normal pair so in this case I do in effect have a spare pair with me.

BTW OP - I do not like the term "four eyes" it is considered slightly demeaning in certain areas of the world. When I was growing up in the UK the term was "speccy 4 eyes" - I don't like it.

Tizzette

Absolutely and always carry spare glasses even though mine are only non-prescription readers. Why take a chance on the bother and hassle of doing without your glasses while trying to replace them on a trip, when your valuable time could be so much better spent?

User Name

I never have, but on reading these posts will now consider it. I've had a close call when I lost a pair in a dark business class cabin overnight. They'd slipped down the side of the lie-flat seat somehow and got into a position where they'd have easily broken had I brought the seat back upright before searching. I'm off to Asia for 2 weeks at the weekend so think I'll pack my old pair.

pseudoswede

Depending on my situation, I wear either glasses or contacts. For my annual summer trip, where I'm gone four weeks, I wear my glasses and bring four weeks' worth of contacts in my luggage*. If my glasses break, I can fall back on my contacts.

* - I also bring a few pairs of contacts in my carry-on just in case.

Efrem

Nothing against them. We went to one (Costco, same idea) after the stepped-on incident. It was as if they got their entire frame selection from the "these are so ugly we couldn't sell them to anyone" bin almost anywhere else. My time is worth something. There's a limit to how many discounters I'll look at before paying a higher, admittedly extortionate, price for anything. For eyeglasses, my limit is one. And the Chinese pair was quite good-looking*.

_________________________
*Those who have met me in person may find this incongruous.

ajGoes

My glasses broke and disappeared while I was swimming in the muddy Gulf of Mexico in 1968. As a 13-year-old I found it kind of an adventure to muddle through without them for a couple of weeks. I had a pair of folding opera glasses which I used to see the exhibits at the Hemisfair in San Antonio.

Ever since, I try to remember a spare pair and a written prescription. I was aware that they're written differently in other countries but I always figured that some Googling would sort that out. I would be severely handicapped without glasses, so this is definitely something I think about.

9Benua

This. Not the case for the Mrs. though. However she always bring regular & her prescription sunglasses. I guess she'll manage using either one of them if one is missing/broken

IceTrojan

I wear contacts and bring a spare pair of glasses just in case (and also for comfort when on the plane or putzing around the house/hotel).

fassy

Same here.

@OP
By the way there are damn cheap optician/glasses shops chains around in Germany like Apollo or Fielmann which sell a wide range of glasses in the range of 20€ to 60€.

Also not sure why they did not just took your old broken glasses and used them as reference. Every decent optician can read out the old glasses for their exact settings.

For the lack of English speaking proficiency... yeah... sadly still very common in Germany (and a lot of other countries in the world by the way)

ChangingNappies

I bring a spare pair and some one-day contacts. Having young kids, glasses are an attraction to then, and they especialy love to twist branches
Prescription is in the cloud if I need a new pair, so I might get a new pair if in China, but yeah, in Germany I would rather buy some tape rather than a new pair. Not sure about Germany, but in France, prices are quite high due to most people having coverage for glasses, so they are not very price-sensitive (and Internet optician is still a gray area).