Train from Brussels to Amsterdam and Cologne

[ChiefPlanner]

In Cologne, you can walk the bridge that the trains use to cross the Rhine river. Trains pass you on 6 tracks just separated from the walkway by a little fence. With more than 1000 trains per day the spectacle is permanent and impressive. It's easy to find and indicated on Google Maps. Visible on Google street view too, have a look.

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Great little walk and there was a quite reasonable pub / beer at Koln Deutz station where you could enjoy watching the operations.

Presume the bridge still has what seemed to be a very large number of "love" padlocks on it...?

 

[AY1975]

Also do not forget to visit Antwerp station.

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The city of Antwerp itself is also worth a visit, with its magnificent cathedral.

 

[Groningen]

Presume the bridge still has what seemed to be a very large number of "love" padlocks on it...?

Yes it has. And it is full! From the east side to the west side of the Rhein. You can see it on Google Streetview.

 

[30907]

It depends entirely where your interests lie!
if you've got some time take a train to Koblenz down the west bank of the Rhine - that's the fairy tale stretch!

Enjoy the trip.

Agree, but the real fairytale stretch through the Rhine Gorge is Koblenz-Bingen.
Use a Schoenes Wochenende or Quer-Durchs-Land day ticket on local trains unless you can book in advance on IC.

 

[Gadget88]

It depends entirely where your interests lie!

There's the Köln - Düsseldorf cruises on the Rhine which are fun. In Cologne the Cathedral is right beside the Hbf and is well worth an hour or so. Next door is an excellent museum of Roman remains - Köln is a Roman town 'Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium' so shares the same name root as Lincoln.

There are not many old buildings in Köln - it was bombed flat in the war and was rebuilt in the late 1940s, early 1950s.

Try Kölsch beer - it comes in little glasses so you can drink it before the head vanishes. In a proper pub the default is that the waiter will continue to bring a replacement when your glass is empty until you say stop!

For trains the Hbf is very busy, but if you've got some time take a train to Koblenz down the west bank of the Rhine - that's the fairy tale stretch!

Enjoy the trip.

Yes i notice there is other places I can go in Germany perhaps I shall do this another year. I hate flying so this is my perfect trip. I want go to to Berlin too but I will probably have to fly there.

 

[philjo]

I had about 5 hours in Cologne last month before catching the 21:20 sleeper on to Vienna.
I left my case in left luggage at the station and went round the cathedral. then wondered round a couple of the squares and got a meal and just walked by the river for a bit.
I saw a number of large boats doing trips on the river, boarding point was less than 10 minute walk from the station (though I didn't have time to do a trip by the time I got there).

 

[MarcVD]

The city of Antwerp itself is also worth a visit, with its magnificent cathedral.

Including its two organs, among the best in Belgium.

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[Hophead]

Yes i notice there is other places I can go in Germany perhaps I shall do this another year. I hate flying so this is my perfect trip. I want go to to Berlin too but I will probably have to fly there.

If you're that flight-averse, there's really no need. I followed advice posted in this forum (for the benefit of others, on the whole), plus Seat61 as well as spending a bit of time on Deutsche Bahn.

The traditional route is out via Brussles with an overnight stop in Aachen or Cologne, continuing the next day (I was booked to arrive into Berlin for 15:00 or so and was hardly more than 30 minutes late).

On the return, I opted to return via Paris (stopping in Heidelberg) and got a bargain 1st class ticket on that leg.

There are others better qualified to advise on the price and availability of DB "Spezial" (i.e. "Advance") tickets these days - I'm not sure supplies are quite as plentiful as they were in 2015.

 

[47513 Severn]

If you fancy a river trip I would suggest heading south from Cologne rather than towards Dusseldorf. Better still, take a train to Bonn and then get a river boat from there to Remagen or Koblenz. The river gets more scenic the further south you go.

Cologne to Dusseldorf by river has less to recommend, unless you particularly want to see the giant Aspirin factory along the way!

 

[Groningen]

I think that the Ahr valley from Remagen to Dernau can be nice.

 

[30907]

If you're that flight-averse, there's really no need. I followed advice posted in this forum (for the benefit of others, on the whole), plus Seat61 as well as spending a bit of time on Deutsche Bahn.

The traditional route is out via Brussles with an overnight stop in Aachen or Cologne, continuing the next day (I was booked to arrive into Berlin for 15:00 or so and was hardly more than 30 minutes late).

On the return, I opted to return via Paris (stopping in Heidelberg) and got a bargain 1st class ticket on that leg.

There are others better qualified to advise on the price and availability of DB "Spezial" (i.e. "Advance") tickets these days - I'm not sure supplies are quite as plentiful as they were in 2015.

The good news is that there is now an 0825 as well as an 0625 from Brussels to Cologne and using either of those gives you a good chance of a 69 Euro fare and avoids worries about the tight connection. Unfortunately, Brussels is an expensive place to stay during the week (except summer holidays), so it's a bit swings and roundabouts.

 

[coppercapped]

If you fancy a river trip I would suggest heading south from Cologne rather than towards Dusseldorf. Better still, take a train to Bonn and then get a river boat from there to Remagen or Koblenz. The river gets more scenic the further south you go.

Cologne to Dusseldorf by river has less to recommend, unless you particularly want to see the giant Aspirin factory along the way!

Quite. "Köln - Düsseldorf" is the name of the shipping company. It does cruises as far as Frankfurt and along the Moselle as well.

 

[JonasB]

Try Kölsch beer - it comes in little glasses so you can drink it before the head vanishes. In a proper pub the default is that the waiter will continue to bring a replacement when your glass is empty until you say stop!

If you've had enough Kölsch but don't want to leave yet, put the coaster on top of the empty glass.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

To everyone reporting having their ID checked, was it train conductors checking, or the local police?

Always by police (or possibly customs staff).
Definitely not railway staff, and not interested in tickets.
Some of it is checking for banned goods as much as for ID (searching bags etc).
On the ICE from Hamburg to Copenhagen, Danish officials boarded before reaching the Puttgarden ferry and asked questions like how long you planned to stay in Scandinavia.

 

[brandenburger]

Yes i notice there is other places I can go in Germany perhaps I shall do this another year. I hate flying so this is my perfect trip. I want go to to Berlin too but I will probably have to fly there.

You don't have to!

 

[Groningen]

If you go by nightboat from Harwich to Hoek van Holland, Rotterdam and change in Amersfoort you are at 17.28 in Berlin Hbf.

 

[30907]

If you go by nightboat from Harwich to Hoek van Holland, Rotterdam and change in Amersfoort you are at 17.28 in Berlin Hbf.

Amd you can do it slightly quicker via Eindhoven-Venlo-Duisburg. Done both, and I highly recommend the ferry, as does Mark Smith aka Seat61, but the onward rail journey feels a bit slow. Certainly from London the Brussels route is a good 2 hours quicker.

 

[duesselmartin]

If youre journey is rail related, take the train from Cologne to Wuppertal. The elevated Monorail ( Schwebebahn) is a must. you can take it conviniently to the zoo for example.

 

[StephenHunter]

I did Brussels-Cologne on ICE3M last year on the way to Berlin (you can do it in a day from London) and it was superb; lovely trains.

Bear in mind that trains in Belgium go on the left, but in Germany they go on the right.

 

[Gadget88]

I'm going to book it next month but might have an extra day but I discovered Ghent and Liage station are not near the city centre. Even Bruges will require a taxi journey from the station.

My plan is to tour Belgium over the next few years and possibly Holland. I discovered places like eindhoven will be accessible by train. For this trip my base will be Brussels but I'm considering Rotterdam as a base to travel places when Euro star have direct trains going there.

Paris to Barcelona is also on my to do list.

 

[ooo]

I'm going to book it next month but might have an extra day but I discovered Ghent and Liage station are not near the city centre. Even Bruges will require a taxi journey from the station.

My plan is to tour Belgium over the next few years and possibly Holland. I discovered places like eindhoven will be accessible by train. For this trip my base will be Brussels but I'm considering Rotterdam as a base to travel places when Euro star have direct trains going there.

Paris to Barcelona is also on my to do list.

From Ghent station there are frequent trams into the city centre

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[johnnychips]

From Ghent station there are frequent trams into the city centre

As someone on here said a bit back, don't miss Gent, it's better than Bruges. The number one and 22 trams run frequently to the centre and take ten minutes. If you like taking taxis, one you just get into rather than prebook
costs €11 to the Korenmarkt.

 

[radamfi]

From Ghent station there are frequent trams into the city centre

Riding on the trams there is a good way of seeing the city.

Liege has a segregated busway between the station and city centre.

 

[ooo]

Also in Bruges it is only a short walk from the station into the centre but there are frequent buses into the centre from right outside the station. All buses and trams in Flanders including Ghent and Bruges are operated by De Lijn delijn.be.

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[Groningen]

Ghent does not exist. It is still Gent. Not to be confused with Genk near Maastricht.

 

[johnnychips]

Ghent does not exist. It is still Gent. Not to be confused with Genk near Maastricht.

'Ghent' is the anglicised version of the Dutch 'Gent', which I use out of habit as I go there so often. Sort of similar is the way in England we use 'Bruges' and 'Ypres', the French versions of what the native local Dutch speakers call 'Brugge' and 'Ieper'.

These things change over time. I doubt people these days talk of 'Flushing ' and 'Leghorn' rather than Vlissingen and Livorno, but we don't say 'Roma' or 'Firenze' yet.

 

[30907]

These things change over time. I doubt people these days talk of 'Flushing ' and 'Leghorn' rather than Vlissingen and Livorno, but we don't say 'Roma' or 'Firenze' yet.

An interesting example: I am involved in a (church) partnership between Blackburn and Braunschweig - but our friends there (and the tourism people, not to mention a certain online map provider) often use the historical English form of Brunswick.

And then there's the delicate question of what the correct usage should be for former German cities like Breslau/Wroclaw or Pressburg/Bratislava....

 

[Groningen]

According to Wiki you call Livorno Leghorn, because of some breed of chicken from that area. The only UK town we (Dutch) have a different name for is London. Here is spelled Londen. Several German towns have different name. Mostly close to the border + Berlin, Braunschweig, Koeln, Nuernberg and Duesseldorf.

 

[johnnychips]

According to Wiki you call Livorno Leghorn, because of some breed of chicken from that area. The only UK town we (Dutch) have a different name for is London. Here is spelled Londen. Several German towns have different name. Mostly close to the border + Berlin, Braunschweig, Koeln, Nuernberg and Duesseldorf.

I know this is horribly off-topic but I'm intruiged. I know Aachen is Aken in Dutch, but what are some others?

 

[Groningen]

In french Aachen is called Aix-la-Chapelle. Saarbrücken is Sarrebruck in french.