My understanding is that contactless cards have limit of £30 per transaction in the UK. Apple Pay (perhaps it's the same with Android Pay?) has a significantly higher limit.
25 € in Austria. But for higher amounts you can still just hover the card above the terminal and then enter your PIN instead of sticking the card in (at least at some stores).
Interesting. In most stores in Holland my experience is that over a certain amount, or after a certain number of transactions, I get a 'pin required' message. I then have to wait for the cashier to do some voodoo, only then insert my card (before that causes issues), and enter my PIN. This is the case pretty much everywhere.
I love contactless payment, and this occasional complication doesn't cause enough trouble, but it's still really annoying because I'd expect exactly what you describe to be the case.