Just got back from 5 weeks in Europe... mostly trouble free experience throughout Germany/Italy/Spain and France both tapping and inserting. Portugal however was problematic; regardless of terminal and whether the merchant accepted Amex, the card always declined. Especially annoying given my bags were lost inbound to Lisbon, and to claim on the included travel inconvenience insurance the transactions had to be made on the charge card itself. Tried swiping, only for the terminal to prompt to insert. Fortunately, a savvy operator worked out that if you inserted the card backwards first, the terminal would be fooled into accepting the mag strip (fallback?), then prompted for both a PIN and signature (eventually approved).
The lengths one goes to for socks and a toothbrush...