In Europe, Opening Night at the Border

His grandfather used to tell stories about how he'd drive across the Czech border to go dancing before the Cold War put a stop to it. "Now he can go dancing again," Matthausch said with a laugh.

Others, however, fret that the new freedoms will bring problems. In particular, many Germans worry that criminals from their less prosperous neighbors will see the open borders as an invitation to come steal cars and rob houses.

Some German police officials have criticized politicians for rushing to eliminate the border controls. Konrad Freiberg, director of Germany's national police union, said German police lack digital radios to communicate with their Czech and Polish counterparts, who are better equipped. He also said there is confusion among officers over how much leeway they have to chase crooks into other countries.

"There will be more crime in the border regions, more break-ins, more human trafficking, whether of immigrants or prostitutes or whomever, because criminals will know that we are limited in our powers of pursuing them across the borders," Freiberg said. "They will simply cross back and forth and be relatively safe."

But many residents of the tri-border area here say the increased convenience will outweigh any risks.

Peter Peuber, 43, owns a pizzeria in Hradek nad Nisou. Every morning, he and his wife drive their boys, Peter and Paul, to elementary school in Zittau. The trip is only about two miles, but they must first cross a checkpoint into Polish territory and then, 500 yards later, another one into Germany. "You never know how much time it might take to get across," he said.

In practical terms, he figures the end of the checkpoints means that his kids will be able to sleep an extra 10 or 15 minutes each morning and get a later start for school. But he also predicted that it will take a long time for residents to get used to the idea that they can cross the border whenever they want, wherever they want, and that nobody will care.

"For many people, it will be strange, and they'll probably stop at the border anyway to try to make sure that somebody has seen them go by," he said. "As long as the border huts are still standing, people will stop."

In Bogatynia, a town of about 20,000 people that serves as the Polish anchor of the Little Triangle, the deputy mayor, Jerzy Stachyra, echoed the sentiment that the concept of borders will take longer to disappear in people's minds. He recalled growing up behind the Iron Curtain and said it could be extraordinarily difficult to gain permission to visit what were then East Germany and Czechoslovakia, even though both were also communist members of the Warsaw Pact.

"From where I lived, I could see the houses of Germany and the Germans walking along the river," he recalled. "But if you had told me 20 years ago that you could one day cross the border like nothing was there, I would never have believed it."

Special correspondent Shannon Smiley contributed to this report.