Travel Blog Posts
Christmas market tour - final stop Lille
Published: December 9th 2006Europe » France » Nord-Pas de Calais » Lille
December 5th 2005
The final stop of our 6-day mini adventure was Lille, in NE France, close to the Belgian border. I remember learning about Lille at primary school - I have this vivid memory of looking for it on a school map of France (weird or what?) and I remember learning that the car industry was big in the area. Amazing what kind of information your brain retains, as what use could Lille be to a 10-year-old in Greece? I certainly hadn't imagined then that 20 years later I'd be visiting in person, and I was rather excited to be going. About time the spot on the map became a real, live city. We left Aachen around 2 pm for Brussels, from where we were due to catch the 17:01 Eurostar to Lille. We only had 1.5 hours ... read more
Christmas market tour - now on to Aachen
Published: December 2nd 2006Europe » Germany » North Rhine-Westphalia » Aachen
December 4th 2005
Aachen isn't what you'd call a major Christmas market. It's certainly not "up there" with the likes of Cologne, Nuremberg, Stuttgart etc. Its main selling point (and the reason why we included it in our trip) is that it's on the Thalys/ICE route from Brussels to Cologne. As this was the fourth day of our six-day tour, we needed to start moving towards London, or we'd be faced with a jumbo return journey, and neither Jasmin nor I fancied that. This is how we found ourselves on the Thalys for the short hop (just 35 minutes!) from Cologne to Aachen, in the general direction of Brussels. Aachen has a typical German Weihnachtsmarkt that somewhat lacks the charm of Cologne's Christmas markets, but still seems to attract the crowds, particularly locals and visitors from Belgium and the ... read more
Christmas market tour - Cologne at last
Published: December 2nd 2006Europe » Germany » North Rhine-Westphalia » Cologne
December 3rd 2005
Cologne was the original (and main) destination of this trip, the reason we went on it in the first place - even if, with all the intermediate stops and side trips, we ended up spending less time in Cologne itself than we would have liked. On this third day of our mini Christmas market tour, we (very grudgingly) departed Amsterdam around 1:00 PM and arrived in Cologne almost 7 hours later, with a 2-hour stopover in Brussels, which we took advantage of to finally visit the Marché de Noël. The plan was that we'd leave our bags in the left luggage lockers at Brussels Midi, then we'd take the tram to Place Sainte Catherine, where the market took place. Brussels being as compact as it is, we figured we had enough time to travel there and ... read more
Christmas market tour - a side trip to Amsterdam
Published: November 27th 2006Europe » Netherlands » North Holland » Amsterdam
December 2nd 2005
Amsterdam isn't a destination you immediately think of when considering a Christmas market tour - in fact, I doubt you'd think of it at all. The only reason we included it to our plans was because we came across some bargain Thalys fares, which meant we could travel from Brussels to Amsterdam and back for just £24. Neither Jasmin nor I had ever been to Amsterdam before; we thought this was an opportunity not to be missed. Thalys is a high-speed train run jointly by the Belgian, French, Dutch and German railways. Its network links Brussels with Paris, Amsterdam and Cologne. http://www.thalys.com/ The best thing about it is that, although it's a high-speed, high-quality service, it offers bargain fares called "Smilys" which allow even those of us on a budget to experience the pleasure of fast ... read more
Christmas market tour - first stop Brussels
Published: November 25th 2006Europe » Belgium » Brussels-Capital Region » Brussels
December 1st 2005
So here we are at Waterloo International station on a grey Thursday morning. Our meticulous planning had paid off: we'd managed to squeeze six days' worth of winter clothing in our tiny wheelie cases. When we'd first decided to do this trip, I'd briefly toyed with the idea of purchasing a small rucksack - I mean, no interrailing trip is complete without a rucksack, right? Jasmin quickly put paid to *that* plan, when she announced that as far as she was concerned, a wheelie case was the only acceptable mode of trasporting clothes and toiletries from one place to another. So I went out and bought a wee rolling case instead - purple to match my purple jacket (after all, a girl has to be co-ordinated even when interrailing). It was so small I had to ... read more
December 1st 2005
Let me start by saying I'm not a big fan of Christmas. In fact, I'm more of a "bah humbag" kind of person. But I do love Christmas markets, especially the ones in Germany. I was introduced to them a few years ago when I visited my friend Alix who moved to Cologne from the UK. I loved them so much I returned every year, until Alix left Germany in 2003 and I no longer had reason to visit. This year I decided I was missing the mulled wine too much - I needed to visit a Christmas market! First I thought of Lincoln, in northern England, then someone who'd been told me it wasn't much to write home about, and nothing like Germany. So I thought, why not go to Cologne anyway? And while I ... read more
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