Jay,

Do the rules differ in any real way, or are they just goofy little
regulatory differences that have no immediate impact on most real
flights. (For example, if Belgium's VFR cloud restrictions are
different than France's, it's just a "gotcha" on a test, rather than
anything "real".)

They differ from the US in a substantial way, they differ within Europe in
small, but sometimes important ways. For example, in Spain, every VFR flight
needs to file a flight plan. Also, you need to file for cross-border
flights, although within EU countries that have signed the Schengen accord,
there's neither passport nor customs control. Jeppesen published VFR manuals
here, called Bottlang manuals. They offer one-time trip kits which list the
differences from ICAO standard.

What does a rental checkout involve? Will (for example) a German FBO
be comfortable renting Mary and me an airplane for a week? How about
if they know I'm going to fly outside of Germany?

Pretty much the same as in the US. They want to know you can fly (from
grass, too, since most fields are turf - well kept turf, though). They want
to know you are familiar enough with the regs. English in the radio is not a
problem, except in France ;-) As for the weekly rental, they would probably
want daily minimums, just as in the US. However, if you make a connection
through one of the Europeans here, that would probably make it easier. As
for flying outside Germany, they would want to know the rough itinerary, but
otherwise it is no problem. There are higher insurance coverages required in
some countries, but they are covered with the usual FBO insurance. For
example, the Danish raised theirs to exactly 18 million Danish Crowns after
a plane crashed into a factory, the insurance wouldn't pay that much and the
state had to pick up 18 million. Kind of funny.

Okay, so it sounds like renting a plane for a flight around Europe will
cost at least 100% more than flying Atlas here in the States.

When I rent in the US, I pay about 90 to 100 $ for a beat-up Cessna. You'd
pay a little less than double that, yes.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)