i'm a-goin' to europe this winter. mostly I will be staying in Trier and Berlin with family but by far the cheapest tickets I could find flew into and out of Brussels. I was wondering if ya'll had any recommendations as to cool things to do either in Brussels or in the surrounding area. Thinking I might explore a bit for a few days either at the beginning or end of the trip. I think i'll get a germany-luxembourg-belgium-netherlands eurail pass so I guess stuff in the netherlands would be fair game too. How long of a train ride is it from brussels to amsterdam?

the only place i am interested in/am in any way familiar with in that area is bruges because of that movie in bruges. It looks like a pretty nice little city so I'm thinking about going there but not totally attached.

The girlfriend will be with me and I think we are looking for somewhere we could go that is quiet, scenic, and maybe a little bit romantic. neither of us are really big city people and we're already going to be spending time in Berlin so maybe more rural recommendations would be nice. And we'd very much like to avoid touristy areas if possible. The girl's never been to europe before so if you have any quintessentially european destinations in mind that might be something to consider as well.

I guess we are looking for a nice town where we could stay in an affordable, pleasant hotel and take lots of nice walks through countryside and eat affordable meals at small local restaurants.

Thanks!

the girlfriend makes it seem like she's an object.

Go to Bruges. It's about an hour outside Brussels via easy commuter train.

Trier's kind of cool.

what will happen if belgium breaks up? what will they call the beer? what will happen to cyclocross? all because of the Flemish! or maybe it's the Walloons! they just can't get along. it could be the end.

who likes being called "the girlfriend?" not me.

if you don't like touristy areas, you should avoid bruges.
it matches a lot of the other criteria though. it's small and it looks nice.

i'm not really sure what to recommend rurally.

sounds fun tho. i'm hungry.

i'm hungry too.

last thursday i had brussels sprouts for the first time. not bad.

I hope you're not thinking about taking children there.

brussels - amsterdam, depending on what train you'll take, is between 1 hour and 45 mins and 2 hours and 45 mins.

beffen

the girlfriend makes it seem like she's an object.

apologies

Go to Bruges. It's about an hour outside Brussels via easy commuter train.

Trier's kind of cool.

yeah trier is great. my grandmother lives there.

if you don't like touristy areas, you should avoid bruges.
it matches a lot of the other criteria though. it's small and it looks nice.

i'm not really sure what to recommend rurally.

any other general recs? i'll probably have a few hours to spare in brussels at some point. how is bruges touristy?

beffen

i hear it is kind of smelly.

bruges is touristy because thousands of tourists come there every day. so there are plenty of people.
some streets have a very high amount of tourist shops. all canals are full of boats, and these boats are full of tourists. and there are also plenty of horse carriages riding around. note that this isn't how the locals get around.
i still recommend bruges though.

you can have a good time at brussels too. and why not, if you're there anyway.
i recommend getting some sort of tourist guide book for brussels though, to check out what you might want to see, and to see where you're going. otherwise you might end up not seeing much more than the big square.

i also like ghent a lot. but this is once again a city and as a result not very rural.

beffen

WHERE I AM KING :mad:

If I grew up on a farm, and was retarded, Bruges might impress me but I didn't, so it doesn't.

If I grew up on a farm, and was retarded, Bruges might impress me but I didn't, so it doesn't.

what? have you ever been out of texas you ignoramus?

anyway, what about the Netherlands? anyone know anything about greetsiel, germany? it's on the border with the netherlands. any towns with really excellent cathedrals around there?

how are ghent and bruges different? would you suggest one over the other?

i think my girlfriend would like a small town where we can go on long, pretty walks.

who likes being called "the girlfriend?" not me.

i have a friend who calls his chick "my lady" i dont know why but it really bothers me

what about fuck doll?