Travel Belgium

[richardfinegold]

HD

Did you receive my reply to your private messages? The message function of this Forum can be quite challenging

[RichardB]

I've spent much time in Belgium, for work-related reasons which means my view of it might not be typical, but Ghent, Bruges and Antwerp are three of my favourite cities, Brussels slightly less so. The Concertgebouw in Bruges is a very fine concert hall complex with a highly varied and imaginative programme. I find that the Belgian countryside is more often reminiscent of the First World War than the second - you can be driving through it and realise with a shock that the strangely undulating terrain is what remains of apocalyptic battlefields, or equally suddenly find yourself driving past a graveyard that stretches as far as the eye can see. Visual art and architecture are very well served in all of these cities, as you can imagine. There's no need to make use of a car to travel between them since distances are small (Belgium is slightly bigger than Maryland) and the train network is extensive and efficient.

[french frank]

There's an app that you can get for your phone and then plan train travel in advance or on the hoof. I imagine the Eurail app works pretty much in the same way as the Interrail one which I have on my phone. I'm busy planning/dreaming of a trip to France in a couple of months time. Train times, reservations &c.

https://www.eurail.com/en/plan-your-trip/rail-planner-app

[Dave2002]

Really not sure I can help too much here - though I've been to the Netherlands and Belgium by most methods - train, air, ship and car. Train is good from the UK, and probably from most other nearby cities and countries in Europe. Sometimes cars are very helpful - otherwise one might have to rely on taxis or local tour operators. Getting to some destinations from railway stations is not always as easy as one might think. It is not always the case that taxis are available at every railway station, though perhaps most of Europe now relies on dial a ride services, like Uber. Brussels is fairly easy - the bus and tram network functions well. Possibly getting to out of town locations, such as war cemeteries might be quite hard to do without a car or a pre-booked tour or ride. If you book into large hotels in decent sized cities, probably there'll be someone in the hotel who can arrange transport to locations you want to go to, or let you know of tours which are available. Small hotels may not have such expertise available. Driving around some parts of Europe can be stressful, and indeed I recall Brussels being quite a challenge and that was over twenty years ago. Most cities and roads have got worse rather than better since then.

I haven't driven so much in Europe recently - for various reasons, though recently I drove from Naples to the bottom end of Italy, and it wasn't too bad once I got into it - but on that recent occasion having an automatic car helped. A previous trip a few years ago had me driving round Puglia in a small car with stick shift gears. Although I used to drive cars with gears, I haven't done much of that in recent years, apart from hire cars, and really it just adds to the hassle of driving.

On one trip though I was waiting for a train at Brussels main station, and I had a laptop out. A couple of policemen came up to me and told me that I was sitting in a location where it was highly likely that I'd have the computer or my wallet stolen. They advised me to be careful and keep an eye open. As it happened nothing of that kind happened to me, but I was really surprised at their words of caution.

Given the length of time available, and other considerations it's probably not worth considering any other options, but some people like travelling by boats along rivers, for example like this holiday - https://www.vikingrivercruises.co.uk...dam/index.html Some of those are actually rather good - particularly if you can get a good cheap deal [which is quite often the case - don't pay the catalogue price unless (a) you can afford it, and (b) you don't like rooting around for cheaper deals.] Several companies do river trips on the waterways round some of the areas mentioned in the opening questions.

Another approach is to get a travel agent to put together a package for all the places you want to visit, and indeed the trip to Italy I mentioned was put together by an agent getting us to places we wanted to visit and stay in. It wasn't cheap, but given the quality of the places we stayed in, it was good, and we costed out whether we could have done it cheaper ourselves. We couldn't!

[RichardB]

On one trip though I was waiting for a train at Brussels main station, and I had a laptop out. A couple of policemen came up to me and told me that I was sitting in a location where it was highly likely that I'd have the computer or my wallet stolen. They advised me to be careful and keep an eye open. As it happened nothing of that kind happened to me, but I was really surprised at their words of caution.

I presume you mean Bruxelles-Midi/Brussel-Zuid, which is notorious for pickpockets. I've seen it happen.

[french frank]

I presume you mean Bruxelles-Midi/Brussel-Zuid, which is notorious for pickpockets. I've seen it happen.

Which reminds me, if you use the Interrail/Eurail app (I don't think you have to buy a pass to download the app), it helps to know the local name of the station, in Belgium Bruxelles or Brussel. Brussels only brings up Brussels Airport. Ghent is Gent or Gand &c.

[richardfinegold]

The trip is taking shape. We were going to go with a Travel Planner, based in the U.K., but their service is horrendous and I am finding it much cheaper to plan myself. We will be dividing out time between Bruges and Belgium with assorted day trips, perhaps some half day cycling around Bruges and the perimeter. Does anyone have any hotel recommendations for those two sites. There seems to be a lot of choices

I am a little disappointed in the day trip choices for the Ardennes. Would be it be recommended to spend a night in Luxembourg City or thereabouts?

[richardfinegold]

So we leave in a few days. First 4 nights in Brussels, the last 3 in Bruges. I decided to omit a visit to the Ardennes as it just didn't fit in with anything else. A harder cut to make was eliminating Ypres/Flanders. I really would like to see the WW1 sites, but it appears to be more of a must for Brits, the equivalent of doing a tour of American Civil War sites for Americans. So Waterloo may be it for the Military sites on this trip We have side trips to Antwerp and Ghent planned and I didn't really want to overload us. Perhaps after retirement a more leisurely Western Europe will allow us to hit these areas.

[Pulcinella]

I hope you have a great time.
Do tell us all about it.
St Bavo in Ghent is a must see!

[Historian]

Enjoy Waterloo rfg. Unfortunately the British/Allied position suffered in places from the earth-workings used to build the Waterloo Mound. However, much of the battlefield is still recognisable, including Hougomont chateau and La Haye Sainte farm. Better to spend more time on the First World War sites on another trip (if that is possible). Hope all goes well.

[richardfinegold]

Thanks Pulci and Historian, and the others that have helped me (special acknowledgement to HD). We are Wine Drinkers ,not so much into beer, but hopefully will not suffer accordingly!

[HighlandDougie]

Thanks Pulci and Historian, and the others that have helped me (special acknowledgement to HD). We are Wine Drinkers ,not so much into beer, but hopefully will not suffer accordingly!

Hope that it all works out. The Ardennes (Bastogne etc) will still be there another year (and could be combined in a trip across the French border to Verdun). The 'À la Mort Subite' café/bar in Brussels well worth a stop for a reviving glass of 'kriek lambic', as in cherry or raspberry flavoured beer. Very refreshing. It also has a rather fine tramway museum but now I'm betraying my inner geek ....

[Maclintick]

Hope you have a brilliant time, RFG. I'd second Pulcie's recommendation of St Bavo's in Gent with its wonderful Van Eyck altarpiece, and if you're going to Antwerp the Plantin-Moretus Museum is unmissable. The Rubens house is closed for renovation, but 5 canvasses from the collection are currently on display at Plantin-Moretus.

[Pulcinella]

Hope you have a brilliant time, RFG. I'd second Pulcie's recommendation of St Bavo's in Gent with its wonderful Van Eyck altarpiece, and if you're going to Antwerp the Plantin-Moretus Museum is unmissable. The Rubens house is closed for renovation, but 5 canvasses from the collection are currently on display at Plantin-Moretus.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lamgods_open.jpg

Part of which I first encountered when it was used as the cover art for the King's Cambridge recording of RVW's Sancta Civitas (sadly poorly reproduced on the discogs site):

https://www.discogs.com/master/1031752-Vaughan-Williams-Heather-Harper-Ian-Partridge-John-Shirley-QuirkBach-Choir-Boys-Of-Kings-College-Cho

[richardfinegold]

Hope that it all works out. The Ardennes (Bastogne etc) will still be there another year (and could be combined in a trip across the French border to Verdun). The 'À la Mort Subite' café/bar in Brussels well worth a stop for a reviving glass of 'kriek lambic', as in cherry or raspberry flavoured beer. Very refreshing. It also has a rather fine tramway museum but now I'm betraying my inner geek ....

I prefer wine to beer generally, although I’ve been preparing for the trip by sampling the various Belgian Ales one can obtain here (it’s a lot of work doing this research, but one needs to be diligent). Lambic and sour beers don’t interest me, although perhaps as a break from potent Trappist Ales it might be worth a tipple). The bar you mentioned is mentioned in many guide books. As a non French Speaker, how exactly does that translate?
We are doing a one day side trip to Antwerp. The Plantins-Moretus Museum is more than just Printing Presses?