Europe, here we come! August 2023

Ruthie Lanigan
Aug 24, 2023
3 min read

Time for another Minigan's Travels story. This year we are doing it a little different. We flew into Frankfurt today and immediately hopped on a train to travel to Brussels. The journey begins. We will be heading all over Europe via train. Frankfurt, Brussels, Amsterdam, London, Budapest, possibly Croatia, Prague, Vienna and Munich. Our tale begins with our neighbor picking us up and driving us to the airport. He runs a car service and has received excellent reviews. We have decided to never take our car to the airport again!

We left Nashville around 2:00 and headed to Atlanta where we would connect to our flight to Frankfurt. We had a very nice, uneventful flight and even managed to get a little sleep.

We were at the Frankfurt airport at the same time two of our dear friends, Mitch and Steph were there. They were flying on to Copenhagen. Unfortunately, we were at different gates and since we didn't have boarding passes to go into their gate, we didn't get to see them. We talked on the phone being minutes apart but could not see them We were really disappointed.

Leaving the airport, we found the train station where we would hop on a train and head to Brussels.We had already purchased our Eurail passes so all we had to do was find the right train. The train station in Frankfurt was quite impressive and everyone was extremely helpful. We had no problem at all!

We had one change of trains we had to make and were not concerned at all. Until all the people started getting on the train that had made reservations. Now, most of the trains do not require reservations. This one did not so we didn't bother making reservations. We got to sit some of the time but we also ended up standing and leaning against seats in the food car. It wasn't so bad but we definitely learned that reservations are a good idea.

Once we got to the stop where we had to switch trains, we had 5 minutes to depart and find the next train to take us to the Central train station. This was a little concerning because there were no information desks to help us. But low and behold, we found the right train... as it pulled up to the station in front of us... and we walked right on. We headed out and about 4 minutes later we were at the Central train station. We were here! Brussels!

We had no idea what to expect but from what we saw on the train ride, we were going to love it. We walked for about 30 minutes from the train station to our hotel. I'm certain it was uphill the entire way. If you have ever walked with Jim, you know he walks at a faster pace than most. Including me. So here I am walking uphill on cobblestone sidewalk carrying a backpack and rolling my carry-on luggage and trying to keep up with him. Luckily, I survived. We made it to the hotel and were quite pleased. I had researched and found it online and it did not disapppoint. The Thon Hotel in City Central. The staff was amazing and the room was great. We overlooked outdoor gardens that the hotel grows. Much better than facing the street.

Once we took a little nap and shower, we headed out for dinner. The concierge told us about a great place close by so we took her advice and headed out. What we found was perfect. It was a group of outdoor restaurant/bars situation on a square in City Central. We were lucky enough (with a little help from one of the wait staff) to get an outdoor seat right on the square where we could look at all the buildings, do some people watching and have a nice little dinner. Jim was looking around and noticed that all of the trees were trimmed in the shape of a square. We don't know if that is the case all around Brussels or just on this square but we will be sure to find out tomorrow.

Below are some pictures from the day!