• Our booking engine at tickets.railforums.co.uk (powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

My Belgium Trip

Status
Not open for further replies.

Aictos

Established Member
Joined
28 Apr 2009
Messages
10,403
Well I finally managed used Eurostar yesterday on my jaunt to Belgium with memories for life, managed to fully soak up the Belgian experience although I just wished I was spending the weekend instead.

Arrived into Brussels and decided to head to Bruges to spend some time there, one of the memories was travelling on a double decker train (bearing in mind I've never used Rail anywhere in Europe before, this was a culture shock).

Heading for a bite to eat, it was either Subway or a local cafe - no prizes for where I went, yes it was a local cafe which served me a delicious waffle with ice cream, whipped cream and lots of chocolate source with a locally brewed beer :D

Moving on, I decided to do some sightseeing which accumulated in a boat tour on the canals, of course I didn't forget to pick up two local beers to enjoy at Christmas.

Heading back to Brussels, on the next train it was so refreshing to see that not only were seats lined up to the windows and bins provided under every window but also had the luxury of blinds like the UK Class 390s have.

A look around the market was followed by tea at a local cafe, where I soon discovered that my interpretation of the menu was very different to the locals :shock:

Expecting a few mussels and quite a lot of frites, it was a shock to see I actually ordered a large sourcepan of freshly cooked mussels and a small helping of frites - at this time I was fairly hungry so down the hatch they all went with only about 3 or 4 mussels left which is good going.

I then decided to do use the Metro seeing different parts of it before getting a tram direct to the station to board the Eurostar - needless to say I boarded the tram heading in the wrong direction :oops: but luckily only had about 5 minutes to wait for the correct tram!

It was so enjoyable, I certainly have no hesitation in making a return trip in 2012.

The only question I had about Eurostar was they don't seem to have any power points in Standard Class, will Eurostar being putting them in?
 
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

lemonic

Member
Joined
17 Sep 2010
Messages
497
The only question I had about Eurostar was they don't seem to have any power points in Standard Class, will Eurostar being putting them in?

They are currently available in Standard coaches 5 and 14 only. I don't know if this will be extended to all coaches at some point or not. Note that they alternate between UK and continental style for each pair of seats, so if you don't have an adaptor handy, the one nearest you could be useless for you!
 

WestCoast

Established Member
Joined
19 Jun 2010
Messages
5,574
Location
Glasgow
Looks like you had a great time in Belgium!

I hadn't travelled with SNCB much until recently, and I found them rather different to the likes of DB/NS/SNCF/OBB.
 
Last edited:

Mike C

Member
Joined
18 Nov 2011
Messages
161
The only question I had about Eurostar was they don't seem to have any power points in Standard Class, will Eurostar being putting them in?

Hi - yes, it will be happening as part of the refurbishment of class 373.
 

Aictos

Established Member
Joined
28 Apr 2009
Messages
10,403
They are currently available in Standard coaches 5 and 14 only. I don't know if this will be extended to all coaches at some point or not. Note that they alternate between UK and continental style for each pair of seats, so if you don't have an adaptor handy, the one nearest you could be useless for you!

I have to bear that in mind next time, thanks.

Looks like you had a great time in Belgium!

I hadn't travelled with SNCB much until recently, and I found them rather different to the likes of DB/NS/SNCF/OBB.

I did indeed have a great idea in Belgium, am looking forward to returning next year.

Hi - yes, it will be happening as part of the refurbishment of class 373.

That's great news, thanks.
 

RichmondCommu

Established Member
Joined
23 Feb 2010
Messages
6,912
Location
Richmond, London
They are currently available in Standard coaches 5 and 14 only. I don't know if this will be extended to all coaches at some point or not. Note that they alternate between UK and continental style for each pair of seats, so if you don't have an adaptor handy, the one nearest you could be useless for you!

How odd, why only those coaches?
 

Aictos

Established Member
Joined
28 Apr 2009
Messages
10,403
How odd, why only those coaches?

Well according to Eurostar, these power points are only available in Coaches 5 to 14 - I wasn't aware of this until after I had used Eurostar, just need Coaches 1 to 4 and Coaches 15 to 18 to be done and it's good news all round.
 

RichmondCommu

Established Member
Joined
23 Feb 2010
Messages
6,912
Location
Richmond, London
Well according to Eurostar, these power points are only available in Coaches 5 to 14 - I wasn't aware of this until after I had used Eurostar, just need Coaches 1 to 4 and Coaches 15 to 18 to be done and it's good news all round.

So why didn't they install the sockets in all the coaches at the same time? This is ridiculous!
 

exile

Established Member
Joined
16 Jul 2011
Messages
1,336
I was in Belgium recently too - I had to stand from Brussels to Ghent but the return from Bruges on a double deck train was excellent. Not that fast - but as Belgium is a small country it's not that important.
 

gordonthemoron

Established Member
Joined
4 Sep 2006
Messages
6,589
Location
Milton Keynes
I do wish that British people didn't always think of Bruges as the place to visit in Belgium, Gent, Antwerp & even Brussels are so much better
 

WestCoast

Established Member
Joined
19 Jun 2010
Messages
5,574
Location
Glasgow
I do wish that British people didn't always think of Bruges as the place to visit in Belgium, Gent, Antwerp & even Brussels are so much better

I've been to Antwerp, Bruges and Brussels and found Bruges to be a very nice, 'picture postcard' place, although it certainly is touristy.

Never really been a huge fan of Brussels if I'm honest.
 

Aictos

Established Member
Joined
28 Apr 2009
Messages
10,403
I do wish that British people didn't always think of Bruges as the place to visit in Belgium, Gent, Antwerp & even Brussels are so much better

I've got plans afoot to visit Ghent, Antwerp as well as the Ardennes and Ypres next time I'm heading there anyway.
 

radamfi

Established Member
Joined
29 Oct 2009
Messages
9,267
I found Baarle-Hertog quite interesting. No station, but there is a regular bus from Breda (daily) or Turnhout (weekdays).
 

ainsworth74

Forum Staff
Staff Member
Global Moderator
Joined
16 Nov 2009
Messages
27,533
Location
Redcar
I've got plans afoot to visit Ghent, Antwerp as well as the Ardennes and Ypres next time I'm heading there anyway.

If you're going to Ypres try and visit the Menin Gate at 8pm (any evening) for the last post ceremony it's a quite moving moment of remembrance. Even if you can't make that do visit the Gate anyway and also try visiting the Cloth Hall on the main square of Ypres its got quite an interesting museum in it.
 

Aictos

Established Member
Joined
28 Apr 2009
Messages
10,403
If you're going to Ypres try and visit the Menin Gate at 8pm (any evening) for the last post ceremony it's a quite moving moment of remembrance. Even if you can't make that do visit the Gate anyway and also try visiting the Cloth Hall on the main square of Ypres its got quite an interesting museum in it.

Thanks I will, :)
 

scarby

Member
Joined
20 May 2011
Messages
745
I found Baarle-Hertog quite interesting. No station, but there is a regular bus from Breda (daily) or Turnhout (weekdays).

Wikipedia:

The border is so complicated that there are some houses that are divided between the two countries. There was a time when according to Dutch laws restaurants had to close earlier. For some restaurants on the border it meant that the clients simply had to change their tables to the Belgian side.
 

DiscoStu

Member
Joined
26 May 2010
Messages
323
Location
Northampton, UK
Do 23/26's (Apparently the 22's are all withdrawn) still work the P-Trains in Belgium?

I havn't been since about 1996 so I imagine it's changed quite a lot?
 

33056

Established Member
Joined
12 Nov 2007
Messages
2,414
Location
On a train somewhere in Europe
Do 23/26's (Apparently the 22's are all withdrawn) still work the P-Trains in Belgium?

I havn't been since about 1996 so I imagine it's changed quite a lot?
Yes, though with the new class 18s (finally) coming into service the days of the 23s and 26s are numbered. In fact the 26s are very close to finishing as the only booked passenger turns they had left were three peak-hour IR sets between Binche and Louvain-la-Neuve and one of the Antwerp - Aarschot P trains. Last week, the 26s were down to one of the IR sets (the other two were 18s) so I would expect that to be gone by the timetable change.

Both classes do still see some use on freight but will also disappear as the 18s release the class 13s for B Cargo.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top