Unconventional Travel Day

Today was a travel day. The best way to handle that, if you can manage it, is to insert a couple of interesting stops along the way. So on our way to our next 2-night stay in the cute medieval Belgian city of Bruges, we stopped in Cologne (Germany) and the Belgian capital of Brussels.

We woke up in time to have our final breakfast in Amsterdam, finish packing up and head off to the tram to take us to central station. There we boarded the 10:34 train to Cologne, saw the cathedral, had a small picnic lunch on the plaza, picked up our car from Hertz, and drove to Brussels. There we found a parking spot, walked to the Grand Place (historic central plaza surrounded by guild-hall buildings from the 1500-1700’s). It was an amazing sight and made even more amazing by the fact that shops selling the world’s finest chocolates and waffles surrounded it. We had some of each.

Then we drove on to our youth hostel in Bruges. We let the children roam the hostel while Michelle and I took a preview stroll of Bruges and a few twilight photos.

Now, if you look at the map above and see the convoluted way those first few stops are laid out, geographically, you might wonder why we went so far out of our way to get to Cologne, Germany just to see the cathedral there and then backtrack west into Belgium instead of just going there directly. There is an explanation, and it is a good example of why the most obvious plan is not always the best…

Originally, the plan had been to train from Amsterdam to Brussels, and then on to Bruges, without stopping in Cologne. Then after our visit to Bruges, we would train to Trier, Germany (just across the border and via Luxembourg City) to pick up our car for our time in rural Germany. It is important to pick up and drop off your car in the same country or face extra drop charges of up to several hundred dollars.

But with this plan, we would have faced about $350 in train fare and a 12-day car rental. Since car rental rates are cheaper by the week, it was actually $80 cheaper to rent the car for two extra days. By buying the train tickets early, we were able to get a special price for the tickets to Cologne – only $52 for the 5 of us (normally about $150). So, by going a bit out of our way, we were able to save over $370, AND get to see one of Europe’s finest cathedrals. True, we will spend about $100 in gas to do that extra driving. But that’s still a pretty good savings.

The timing worked out better this way, too. There are many advantages to public transport, but you do have to follow their schedule, and it is not always the most convenient. With our car on the Brussels-Bruges-Lux-Trier route, the timing worked out better, too. Overall, a win-win all around.

Tomorrow is our Bruges day. If you are a fan of dark comedy, be sure to see the movie “In Bruges”. That was our inspiration for this visit…