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My theory is that after WWI Belgium purposely decided to make it as difficult as possible to travel through their country to stop that poo poo happening again. edit: hahaha what a great snipe that was
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Jul 8, 2016 00:16
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In my defense, this thread is full of Canadians talking about  I imagine Canadian trains are as lovely as United States ones.
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Jul 8, 2016 08:34
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hackbunny fucked around with this message at 03:54 on Jul 2, 2020 |
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Jul 8, 2016 11:26
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Yep Belgian infrastructure is pretty terrible, and that very much includes the trains. There are some nice modern ones out there, but timetables are irregular, customer service pretty much non existant and the stations are awful, with one or two exceptions (the main Antwerp and Liege stations). The Dutch railways are pretty drat great and I miss them.
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Jul 8, 2016 14:57
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It must have been quite a while since any of you made a rush hour train journey in or out of Amsterdam Spoiler alert: it's poo poo
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Jul 8, 2016 15:16
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EricBauman posted:It must have been quite a while since any of you made a rush hour train journey in or out of Amsterdam I used to think so, until I started to use other systems on a regular basis.
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Jul 8, 2016 15:47
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Oh, I've been on foreign trains. Italy, Germany, Ukraine, mainly. But when I worked in Amsterdam, there wasn't a week without a delay of over an hour. And poo poo all for information. I've had to explain the delays to loads of tourists and foreign visitors because the NS only offers English language information if it feels like it. On a train between the capital, the airport and a city that calls itself the third UN capital.
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Jul 8, 2016 16:56
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All the NS info and announcements I've seen and heard in and around Amsterdam has all been in English and Dutch, as I'd expect.
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Jul 8, 2016 17:11
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Hey guys American trains are so much better and cheaper right?
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Jul 8, 2016 17:27
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I really thought NS and NMBS (Belgian train company) were equally poo poo. NMBS is pretty bad, but NS is more expensive and the toilets on the trains are always broken/clogged.
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Jul 8, 2016 18:34
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Walh Hara posted:I really thought NS and NMBS (Belgian train company) were equally poo poo. NMBS is pretty bad, but NS is more expensive and the toilets on the trains are always broken/clogged. They only have toilets on the trains because the government forced them to have them. According to the NS people don't actually need toilets.
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Jul 9, 2016 13:23
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caberham posted:Hey guys American trains are so much better and cheaper right? Amtrak is not great, but for $22, I can take a 3 hours train ride with a ton of leg room. An equivalent train trip in Germany would cost more and have a lot less leg room (though in the end be more convenient)
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Jul 9, 2016 15:16
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I'm on a brand new NMBS train right now and it's like night and day compared to the 70s era hell train from the other day.
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Jul 9, 2016 16:15
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Gold and a Pager posted:Amtrak is not great, but for $22, I can take a 3 hours train ride with a ton of leg room. An equivalent train trip in Germany would cost more and have a lot less leg room (though in the end be more convenient) And in that three hours you're sure to go literally tens of miles! Seriously, I went from Montreal to Plattsburg on Amtrak once, a distance of 65 miles according to Google Maps, and it took three hours. To say that ICE is more convenient is something of an understatement.
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Jul 9, 2016 16:50
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I keep going in circles, and am hoping for a bit of inspiration. I'm going on a birthday trip with my boyfriend. He'll be in Lisbon until 4 September, and then will be coming to meet me.. somewhere. I (ideally)want to fly out a couple days before and have a bit of a mini solo vacation beforehand. Ideally, where we meet would be - A direct flight or train from Lisbon, near a beach, and somewhere with another interesting city / village nearby so I can spend a couple days exploring that solo. Surfing would be a cool bonus. I don't really need clubs, but somewhere with good food, pubs, etc would be nice. And overall, we're looking for a somewhat laid back holiday with good food, and pretty things to look at. I don't really want a fancy resort or anything. So far - I've looked at Seville (too hot at that time of year), Faro + surrounding (i s it just a mega tourist-party for 20 somethings?), Cadiz (too hard to get to from Lisbon).. Thoughts? Ideas? Lay 'em on me! Thanks so much in advance!
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Jul 10, 2016 11:07
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EasyJet to Lisbon flies to a ton of places, and maybe there are some other LCCs that have Lisbon as a hub too. Check into every flight that's pretty cheap by using flights.google.com and playing with the travel map. Nice has a direct EasyJet flight, and I've been there in September and it's not too crowded and there's a ton to do and the weather is still perfect. Are you already in Spain somewhere? Early September is not too crowded anywhere really. Almost all Europeans go home the last weekend of August, and the bulk of Americans / other foreign tourists will be gone even before that. (Notwithstanding cities that are always swarmed in tourists, like Toledo or Granada, although even these will see a dip.)
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Jul 10, 2016 11:48
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Saladman posted:EasyJet to Lisbon flies to a ton of places, and maybe there are some other LCCs that have Lisbon as a hub too. Check into every flight that's pretty cheap by using flights.google.com and playing with the travel map. Nice has a direct EasyJet flight, and I've been there in September and it's not too crowded and there's a ton to do and the weather is still perfect. Are you already in Spain somewhere? Ahh yeah. Suppose that'd be helpful! I'm coming from London, and my boyfriend will be on a bachelor party in Lisbon. We had planned on going to Croatia for that week, but his friend's bachelor party is in Lisbon that week so now we're trying to work out a mini-getaway instead. So ideally somewhere that's not traumatic for either of us to get to would be fantastic. We'd initially looked at Nice, but after this popped up on Wikitravel we ruled it out - "Once regarded as an average French city with regards to crime, Nice has recently been plagued by a reputation as one of the country's most dangerous cities, with numerous statistics to prove it. While murder is usually uncommon, theft, burglary, and assault are now rife, and it is increasingly advised to not go out at night alone, even for men. " It wouldn't put me off entirely, it was just a quick way of narrowing down the options. Did you ever feel uncomfortable at all? What are the beaches like?
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Jul 10, 2016 12:12
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Things n Stuff posted:I keep going in circles, and am hoping for a bit of inspiration. I'm going on a birthday trip with my boyfriend. He'll be in Lisbon until 4 September, and then will be coming to meet me.. somewhere. I (ideally)want to fly out a couple days before and have a bit of a mini solo vacation beforehand. Consider A Coruńa. It has a direct flight from Lisbon, it has a beach and surfing, and it won't be too hot. The food/pub scene is quite good, as well, and there's some great historical sites to visit. It's quite close to Santiago de Compostela if you want to check that out beforehand, but is also a fairly cheap flight away a number of other interesting cities you could visit by yourself. It will probably be more expensive than when I was there in May, but still quite affordable all things considered. EDIT: It has a direct flight from London, too, I believe, so it will be easy for you to get there.
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Jul 10, 2016 16:23
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Whelp. I done messed up. Was going to go to Plitvice Lakes, but whiffed ob the dates and didn't pick my rental car up on the right day, so now I guess I get to explore more of spilt. Not a bad thing mind you, but still. I'll make up for it by hiking around hvar more.
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Jul 11, 2016 23:50
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I'm planning a solo trip next spring around late April-early May and I'm looking for a bit of advice. This is obviously very preliminary, but right now I'm thinking: 4 days Prague 4 days Vienna with a day trip to Bratislava in there 4 days Ljubljana / Bled 3 or 4 days of ???? Are Graz and/or Brno worth checking out? I've read that Bratislava is just ok; is that the case or is it worth staying there for a few days? Anyplace else worth checking out in that area? Otherwise, I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions on places to go after Slovenia? I generally enjoy history and historical museums, architecture, outdoorsy stuff and trying new food; I also sold wine for nearly 12 years, so I have a big interest with that. I plan on travelling primarily by train, though I'm open to other suggestions if this is a bad idea. I'm a mid-30's male if that makes a difference.
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Jul 12, 2016 23:51
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I don't think you'd want to spend more than a day in Bratislava really. There's a couple of things worth seeing in the Old Town (the castle and the Primate's Palace especially) but outside of the center there's really nothing special. The Danube's always worthwhile but if you're going to Prague and Vienna you're not going to be short of beautiful river scenery.
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Jul 13, 2016 01:46
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ColdBlooded posted:I'm planning a solo trip next spring around late April-early May and I'm looking for a bit of advice. This is obviously very preliminary, but right now I'm thinking: Croatian coast won't be far away and it should be a nice change after all those mittel-Europe cities. Good time of year too - nice weather but not yet too hot and crowded. With enough time you could try malvasia in Istria, vugava on island Vis, dingach on Peljesac peninsula... If you insist on trains you could go Ljubljana-Zagreb-Split but I'd recommend a bus from Ljubljana to Pula and then a rental or local buses. Plenty of wine, history and outdoorsy stuff in Istria.
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Jul 13, 2016 02:02
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So, Antwerpen is happening, what are the best places to eat and see?
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Jul 14, 2016 16:24
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BonHair posted:So, Antwerpen is happening, what are the best places to eat and see? to eat I recommend Kaiseki nearby the central station. All you can eat sushi and teriyaki
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Jul 15, 2016 10:29
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So I'm hoping to go to Sweden for my masters degree, how possible is it for me to get a part time job to help make ends meet? Unfortunately my Swedish skills are more like first-year German skills. I'm hoping to improve them but since I'm in school now it's kind of hard to fit it into my schedule. Fortunately the degree will be taught in English. 
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Jul 17, 2016 09:26
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In September, I'm going to spend three weeks in Europe with one of my best friends, who goes to school in the UK. We're meeting up in London, then spending the rest of the time in Prague/Vienna/Krakow, since he hasn't visited that part of Europe. I haven't been to the continent at all. Here's the tentative itinerary, ignoring the travel days to and from Europe: -7 days in London -5 in Krakow -5 in Vienna -4 in Prague I know the OP explicitly warns against only spending five days in a country, but is that still a bad idea if we're focused on specific cities (rather than e.g. trying to see all of Italy)? If four cities is too many, is one of those four an obvious one to cut? If that list looks solid, any thoughts on the time allocation?
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Jul 18, 2016 02:54
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Looks fine to me, nothing wrong with staying for only a few days if it's just one city. Those days look okay to me, some people will probably tell you to spend less time in Krakow, but there are a bunch of day trips to do from there, i.e. to the concentration camp, and since it's the first stop it'd be nice to spend some time exploring. Vienna and Prague both have enough to do for weeks
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Jul 18, 2016 13:05
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loving hell its Germany this time
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Jul 19, 2016 10:11
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My wife and I are thinking about taking a trip this October, and we're looking at Amsterdam/The Netherlands/maybe Belgium? It's my understanding that Oct is the beginning of the off season, mostly cool and a little wet, which sounds fine for us. We like chilling in museums, eating good food, historic buildings and architecture, live music (esp. jazz or classical music), and good bars/drinks. I was thinking about planning maybe 10-12 days. I have a good friend who said that Amsterdam is only worth four days, but it sounds pretty cool to me so I wanna do at least 5-6. And then maybe a couple of 2 day trips around to other cities, possibly The Hague, Brussels, Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, maybe Luxembourg? (Obviously not all of them unless we want to extend the trip) It seems like you can get everywhere on a train in like an hour which is pretty neat, although I am reading on the last couple pages that the trains are unreliable which is good to know.
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Jul 22, 2016 18:01
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I'm planning on being back in Europe for a few weeks in October as well. I have to be in the Austrian alps by the 16th, but was thinking of flying over maybe around the 10th/11th and spending a few days getting over jet lag, but I'm not entirely sure where to do it. Tentatively thinking London? Somewhere with a direct flight from Vancouver (or that connects elsewhere in NA without having to re-check luggage) would be best, since travelling with ski gear is the worst poo poo ever. If anyone has any suggestions, I'm open to it!
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Jul 22, 2016 18:15
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Rashomon posted:I have a good friend who said that Amsterdam is only worth four days, but it sounds pretty cool to me so I wanna do at least 5-6. And then maybe a couple of 2 day trips around to other cities, possibly The Hague, Brussels, Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, maybe Luxembourg? (Obviously not all of them unless we want to extend the trip) You're not getting to any place in Belgium in a hour or so from Amsterdam by regular train, you need to reserve a seat on the high speed train for that otherwise it is more like 2-3 hours. Check NS.nl and NSinternational.nl. High speed train is pretty expensive if you don't book well in advance (€57 per person one way to Antwerp for next Monday for example). Also since it is the off season and NS is very short on trains you may not want to travel by train during the morning/evening commute. Luxembourg is completely out of range for a day trip from Amsterdam, 6+ hours by train.
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Jul 22, 2016 18:48
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Rashomon posted:My wife and I are thinking about taking a trip this October, and we're looking at Amsterdam/The Netherlands/maybe Belgium? It's my understanding that Oct is the beginning of the off season, mostly cool and a little wet, which sounds fine for us. We like chilling in museums, eating good food, historic buildings and architecture, live music (esp. jazz or classical music), and good bars/drinks. I was thinking about planning maybe 10-12 days. I have a good friend who said that Amsterdam is only worth four days, but it sounds pretty cool to me so I wanna do at least 5-6. And then maybe a couple of 2 day trips around to other cities, possibly The Hague, Brussels, Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, maybe Luxembourg? (Obviously not all of them unless we want to extend the trip) I would agree that Amsterdam is about 4 days' worth of trip. Definitely go to the Tropenmuseum if you like anthropological stuff, Brouwerij t'Ij for a nice little brewery tour and some tasty drinks (don't bother with the Heineken Experience unless you're set on it), and Electric Ladyland for a bizarre and brilliant experience - genuinely one of the best things I've done in Amsterdam. Golem Proeflokaal on the Overtoom is a nice pub with lots of good beers, and there are lots of places to eat near there as well. I've heard that Kartika is great for rijstafel but I haven't had the chance to eat there myself. Lost in Amsterdam is pretty touristy but it's a cool bar, and they do really delicious alcoholic milkshakes. You could check out Den Haag, I enjoyed my time there and the Escher museum is in a palace so that is pretty cool. Haarlem is an attractive little town but there's nothing much to do, and I'm not sure spending a couple of hours their in the rain would be that great.
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Jul 22, 2016 18:59
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NihilismNow posted:You're not getting to any place in Belgium in a hour or so from Amsterdam by regular train, you need to reserve a seat on the high speed train for that otherwise it is more like 2-3 hours. Check NS.nl and NSinternational.nl. High speed train is pretty expensive if you don't book well in advance (€57 per person one way to Antwerp for next Monday for example). Also since it is the off season and NS is very short on trains you may not want to travel by train during the morning/evening commute. It seems like it's an hour and 15 minutes on the fast train from Amsterdam to Antwerp, or even quicker if we were coming from one of the other interesting places in the Netherlands (Rotterdam, The Hague). Also I'm not sure if you read my post wrong or what but we're not talking about day trips from Amsterdam, I'm talking about going places and staying there for probably 2 days each. So it seems like we're looking like a 1-2 hour train ride between each if I schedule correctly? You're right that Luxembourg seems to be more out of the way though, like almost 4 hours from Brussels, so that would be an easy choice to drop. But other than that it doesn't seem like any of those places are more than an hour or so from each other (again, assuming we go in a reasonable order like Amsterdam -> The Hague -> Antwerp -> Brussels -> Ghent or something?) I'm not worried about being on a commuter train for an hour (not sure exactly what you're warning about), we live in New York City so crowded trains with people just getting around is not going to be shocking or something. They do seem a bit pricey, so I will try to book in advance for the best prices, thanks for the tip. Bollock Monkey posted:I would agree that Amsterdam is about 4 days' worth of trip. Definitely go to . . . Thank you!
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Jul 22, 2016 19:48
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caberham posted:loving hell its Germany this time It's everywhere. I missed the police station bombing in turkey in early June by about 14 hours, then missed the coup but 5 days. poo poo happens, life's a crap shoot. Sad stuff everywhere 
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Jul 22, 2016 19:51
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Rashomon posted:It seems like it's an hour and 15 minutes on the fast train from Amsterdam to Antwerp, or even quicker if we were coming from one of the other interesting places in the Netherlands (Rotterdam, The Hague). For a multi day trip (i misunderstood) ~2-3 hours on a train doesn't seem so bad especially if you are chaining the destinations. [quote[ I'm not worried about being on a commuter train for an hour (not sure exactly what you're warning about), we live in New York City so crowded trains with people just getting around is not going to be shocking or something. They do seem a bit pricey, so I will try to book in advance for the best prices, thanks for the tip. [/quote] Not sure if this will be the case coming October but it is busy to the point that the rail company itself recommends to avoid those times if at all possible (they even wanted colleges to start later so students would avoid these timeslots). Seems inconvenient when you are carrying luggage for a overnight trip. Just something worth considering if you can at all avoid it. [/quote]
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Jul 22, 2016 21:06
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Don't listen to the other Dutch people whining about the trains, they probably haven't taken trains in literally any other country. Compared to other western European countries we seem to have the highest frequency services, and the delays I've experienced have been smaller and less severe than in Germany or Belgium. And there's free wifi. And if a train is cancelled the next one is in 15 minutes anyway. The main problem is serious overcrowding during rush hour on some routes, as mentioned.Bollock Monkey posted:I would agree that Amsterdam is about 4 days' worth of trip. Entropist fucked around with this message at 21:16 on Jul 22, 2016 |
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Jul 22, 2016 21:11
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If I had a week to a week and a half to spare, and wanted to see Brussels and maybe briefly one other city (Amsterdam or Köln, perhaps?), what would be a good split time wise? What must I absolutely see, keeping in mind I don't care about clubs or parting at all? And is August an okay time to go or is September better?
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Jul 23, 2016 02:24
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ibntumart posted:If I had a week to a week and a half to spare, and wanted to see Brussels and maybe briefly one other city (Amsterdam or Köln, perhaps?), what would be a good split time wise? What must I absolutely see, keeping in mind I don't care about clubs or parting at all? And is August an okay time to go or is September better? Ghent and Bruges in Belgium, Amsterdam is so overrated.
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Jul 23, 2016 02:27
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CLAM DOWN posted:Ghent and Bruges in Belgium, Amsterdam is so overrated. This
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Jul 23, 2016 02:29
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CLAM DOWN posted:Ghent and Bruges in Belgium, Amsterdam is so overrated. I always suspected that to be the case...my wife liked it, but she was there visiting friends and her work paid for everything. Anyway, on Belgium: will French and English serve me fine anywhere I'm likely to go?
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Jul 23, 2016 02:33
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