Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg
Wednesday, April 9 - Friday, April 17This would be my first time visiting Germany since 1992. My ethnicity is half German, with my mother being born and raised in Germany. As a child, I visited my Mom's home town (Helmstedt, on the former border of East Germany) often with my parents. My grandfather died when I was young in a tragic accident, and I don't really remember him. But I do remember my grandmother, the treats she would get us from a local bakery, and the beautiful flower garden she attended in her small backyard.
Wednesday, April 9: Boston to Munich
Jana and I took an Amtrak train from Westerly to Boston South Station, Silver Line bus to Logan Airport, and an evening flight from Boston to Munich on Lufthansa Airlines.
 |
| Comfortable Premium Economy section |
 |
| Decent dinner with a mango salad, fried rice with shrimp and bok choy, roll, brie, a glass of wine, and dessert |
Thursday, April 10: Hannover, Germany
After a brief layover in Munich where we cleared customs, it was a short hop of under an hour to Hannover. This plane was perhaps not surprisingly quite a downgrade from the superjumbo that we crossed the Atlantic on. The seats and interior just seemed cheap, but it was a short enough flight that I suppose it didn't matter.
 |
| Breakfast including fresh fruit, juice, and coffee, just before landing in Munich. |
By the time we got to Hannover, got our luggage and took a subway to the Hauptbahnhof (Hannover main train station), it was mid afternoon. I booked a hotel a very short walk from the Hauptbahnhof, as I had planned for us to use the trains and subways frequently.
 |
| Me and our luggage outside the Hannover Hauptbahnhof |
 |
| Inside the station: connections all over Germany and beyond. In the forefront are "Fahrkarten" (ticket) machines for each purchase, but I used the Deutsche Bahn (German railways) app, which I found to be fantastic for booking tickets, checking and changing schedules, and displaying QR codes for conductors to scan. |
 |
| One of the dozen or so fantastic food shops inside the train station |
After checking into the hotel, I went for a run in the local park while Jana used the hotel's fitness center.
 |
| Along my run today; mostly on soft surfaces in Eilenriede Park |
 |
| And this was on the way back from the park to our hotel |
 |
| Our hotel room in the Double Tree Schweizerhof, with a small balcony |
 |
| Dinner: casual but popular Vietnamese restaurant where we ate several times |
 |
| Starters |
 |
| and mains |
Friday, April 11: Hannover and Goslar, Germany
Today just did not go to plan at all.The plan: Take a narrow-gauge steam train to the summit of the highest peak (Brocken) in northern Germany and then hike most of the way back down, through the Harz Mountains National Park, before taking a train back to Hannover.
What actually happened: To get to the steam train required two train connections. Our train from Hannover left the station on time, but significantly slowed to the point that by the time we arrived at our connecting station, Hildesheim, we had missed our connecting train as they don't wait. We waited at Hildesheim for over an hour for the next available train to take us to our second connecting point, Goslar. We did meet and chat with a nice retired Asian couple from Calgary in the same predicament as us, and that helped pass the time.
When we got to Goslar, of course that connection was missed as well, and we had to wait almost two hours for the next and final train to take us to to the steam train in the Harz Mountains at Wernigerode. Since we had so much time, I reconfigured our hiking route on Strava to a shorter one due to the time we lost so far, and then I walked around the very pretty village at Goslar:
 |
| Goslar train station |
 |
| Remnants of a church built in ~1200AD |
Made it to the platform for the final train to bring us to the Harz Mountains, only to learn that it was running 1/2 hour late. Ugh. This will put us about three hours behind schedule now, and we'll be catching one of the final steam trains of the day. We stay put and wait for the train. Which never comes! About 15 minutes after the 30-minute delay, the status for this train simply drops off the digital board above the track and off the Deutsche Bahn app. SO frustrating! I look up the next train, and that's another 1.5 hours later, which would be five hours behind our schedule now and simply not possible to catch the steam train.
Jana and I talk it over and make the only realistic option available to us: head back to Hannover. Of course the two trains on the return were prompt and incurred no delays or issues. I was extremely disappointed as we lost our only chance to visit the Harz mountains, but no point getting upset about it.
Well, on a positive note, our meals were really good:
 |
| Traditional European breakfast buffet of cheeses, breads, jams, cold cuts, pastries, fruits, muesli, granola, yogurt, strong coffee and juices. Our hotel breakfast also included smoked salmon (upper left), so I ate that happily every day! When I checked in, our hotel attendant told me breakfast was €22 ($26) and I figured that was per person, until I checked out four days later and saw on the receipt that it was €22 for the two of us, so really quite a bargain at €11 each! |
 |
| Tonight's dinner: Japanese (As a youngster, I ate more than my share of German sausages: bockwurst, bratwurst, knockwurst, currywurst, , etc., but for healthy choice reasons I don't eat red meat anymore and we found it easy to seek out other choices in Hannover) --- Interestingly, even diets in Germany have also evolved and Germans today reportedly eat a lot less meat than 50 years ago. I did notice vegetarian versions of currywurst and bratwurst, which I might have sampled had I stayed longer. |
Saturday, April 11: Hannover, Germany
Expo and packet-pickup day. Intentional quiet, down day before tomorrow's marathon.
 |
| Neues Rathaus. ("New Town Hall") The race tomorrow will start and finish here, on the opposite site of the building in photo. |
 |
| Having just picked up my massive bib at the Heinz von Heiden Arena, the site of the Hannover Football Club |
 |
| There were a number of VW van official marathon vehicles, including this one with the CR (2:06:05) posted on the roof |
 | ||
| Tonight's starters (and the glass definitely was curved!) |
 |
| And our meals (mine is the pasta dish at top; gotta have pasta before a marathon!) |
Sunday, April 12: Hannover, Germany
Marathon day! See race report here.
Monday, April 13: Train from Germany to Netherlands
We say Auf Wiedersehen to Germany today after four days, and travel to just outside Amsterdam for a brief stay in the Netherlands.
We got on the first train in Hannover for what should have been an 11-minute ride to our first connection. We stood packed in like sardines for over an hour as repeated delays were announced. When we finally arrived at our first destination, Wunstof, we learned that we missed our connecting train due to the delay and the next train was two hours later. I went into the train station to get my next train rebooked. German only spoken by the man working the train station, and I had a number of questions, which fortunately I got through. My final question to him was is there a public restroom in the train station, and the answer was no, and that one would be built next year. So, worse than the practice here of paying to use the bathroom is that there isn't one!
Other than now being three hours late in our journey, the rest of the train connections went swimmingly. The ICE train to the Netherlands was really very nice! And all of the staff was helpful. And the train bathrooms were clean and free.
 |
| A view of the car we were sitting in |
 |
| Each seatback had a digital menu of the foods and drinks offered on board |
 |
| I got a hot chocolate, tomato soup, gouda and veggie warm croissant, and a dinner roll, all served at my seat, with real cutlery and serving dishes. And, no American tipping culture here. |
Tuesday, April 14: Netherlands to Belgium
With a busy day of time-scheduled activities ahead, I got up early and out for a pre-sunrise run. That is unusual for me. I did not bring a headlamp and while I had mapped out a 5-mile run on bike paths, I just hoped the bike path traffic would be really light. It was!
 |
| Last night's stay and today's run were in the village of Hoofdoorp, municipality of Haarlemmermeer. Not exactly the easiest names to say or spell. |
 |
| Bike traffic was pretty much non-existent in the pre-sunrise hour here. |
 |
| I don't know what I did to agitate this odd bird, but it was flying right next to my head and squawking at me before it settled down here. |
Got back and met Jana for breakfast. Quick shower, change, and hotel checkout before a 4-minute train ride from Hoofdoorp to Schiphol Airport to meet our pre-booked private bus ride to Keukenhof, the famed Dutch tulip gardens. 
I learned that there are over 3,000 varieties of tulips, and also that the first tulips to the Netherlands arrived in the 16th century, by way of Turkey. Nowadays 7 million tulip bulbs are hand planted annually here at the 80-acre Keukenhof gardens, where up to 30,000 visitors per day come during the 53 days that the park is open each year.
It was well worth it to get up before sunrise, as we got to the park when it opened, and by the time we left two hours later, the incoming mob of visitors actually made it so crowded that it was hard to walk against the flow to get back to the entrance/exit and to the bus lot.
We got back to Schiphol with plenty of time go grab a bite to eat before our early afternoon international 90-minute train to Brussels. From Brussels, we took a 1-hour Belgian regional train to Bruges, and then a taxi to our Airbnb for the night.
 | |
|
 |
| We had several rooms, including this master bedroom where Jana and I stayed. Very nice host, Veerla, and for us the main attraction was having a washer and dryer to get clean clothes. |
 |
| We walked down this street to get to our restaurant. |
 |
| We ate outdoors, where we saw this huge frog right near our table! No, he was not on the menu! |
Wednesday, April 15: Bruges and Ghent, Belgium
Got up in the morning (that's a good time to get up, right?) and went out for a run in Bruges, mostly on dirt paths along canals.  |
| We ran on the lower path along the canal. Of course the windmill is more reminiscent of neighboring Netherlands, but this is indeed Belgium! |
 |
| Most of our run was on hard-packed dirt like this. |
 |
| The road goes through the middle of this building! |
Checking out of our Airbnb, we took an Uber to the Bruges train station so that we could drop off luggage while spending some time walking about the city. Automated, quick, and efficient.
A blog report I found online, as well as breakfast recommendations inside the Airbnb both highly recommended That's Toast for breakfast, so that's where we headed.
 |
| Our first stop was breakfast, as we walked along ancient streets like this! |
A blog report I found online, as well as breakfast recommendations inside the Airbnb both highly recommended That's Toast for breakfast, so that's where we headed.
 |
| We all had different breakfast dishes. Mine is lower left was a fantastic Belgian take on french toast, with various fresh fruit. My orange juice was fresh pressed and delicious. |
 |
| Four of us for breakfast |
 |
| One large bathroom in the restaurant for everyone, with separate stalls within. Worked for me. Very clean. |
First stop after breakfast was the Belfry of Bruges. I followed online recommendations and bought tickets before we even left the US. There wasn't much of a line but we did get to skip the short line and people buying tickets.
After the belfry tour, we walked back through the increasingly busy market square to our next stop, Dumon Chocolatier. You can't go to Belgium without buying Belgian chocolate, right?
 |
| From the market square, looking up at the Belfry of Bruges and its 900 year old tower which we would soon ascend. |
 |
| Me inside one of the lower levels of the tower. |
 |
| Some of the 366 steps we climbed. |
 |
| Looking down on the courtyard from which we entered |
 |
| Views from the top |
After the belfry tour, we walked back through the increasingly busy market square to our next stop, Dumon Chocolatier. You can't go to Belgium without buying Belgian chocolate, right?
 |
| Checking out the cases of various chocolates. |
 |
| Everything looked amazing. I wish we had bought more than we did! |
Next up was a canal tour. This one was just right at about 30 minutes, and came highly rated. I remember taking a canal tour in Amsterdam about a decade ago and it seemed like it was a few hours, but because we had just landed that morning, we were jetlagged and we all fell asleep on the canal tour! That did not happen today. A few pics from our canal tour:
 |
| You can see the boat captain in blue cap here. He narrated alternating in English, Dutch, and French. |
 |
| Really neat row houses along the canal. |
Our final stop in Bruges was for Belgian waffles!
We walked back to the Ghent train station, retrieved our luggage, and boarded a ~30 minute train to Ghent.
Upon arrival in Ghent, the train station was under construction, and it was very confusing to find out where the checked luggage location was as things were moved around during the construction. Eventually we found it, checked in our luggage, and unlike in Bruges, we opted to take a local train into and out of the downtown area:
 |
| Me on the tram into the center city. |
 |
| Similar to in Bruges, our first stop was the Belfry of Ghent (built in 1313), which we would climb, sort of: in the Belfry of Bruges you climbed both up and down the stairs, whereas here, you climbed partway up, then took an elevator, and then climbed the final part. We got stopped and told we were going the wrong way, but really the signage was quite lacking. |
As with Bruges, our final stop in Ghent was again for Belgian food, including Belgian waffles! It was mid-afternoon, and we were getting hungry and tired.
We took the tram back to Ghent train station (Gent-Sint-Pieters), and boarded our final train of the day, an hour-plus train ride to Brussels Airport before taking an Uber to the Hilton Garden Inn Brussels Airport for the night.
Thursday, April 16: Brussels, Belgium to Luxembourg
Slept in this morning, after a long but fun day yesterday. No run this morning. After breakfast, we headed back to airport to pick up a rental car for our final full day here.
 |
| Rented a Ford Focus, although pretty sure this station wagon version does not exist in the US. |
 |
| Yes! 6-speed manual transmission, and in a rental car! Another great thing about Europe. |
First stop was the famous Grand Place. Because this is a busy downtown area, we parked right near the Atomium, which would be our second and final place visited in Brussels today, before driving to Luxembourg.
 |
| l-r: Jana, me, Matthew Looking at Brussels City Hall, dating to 1401 |
 |
| And who can resist one more Belgian waffle on our last day in Belgium? Not me! |
 |
| And not my son nor my wife either! |
 |
| The Atomium! Constructed for the World's Fair in 1958.   as we ascended. |
Next was a 3-hour car drive to Vianden Castle in NW Luxembourg. Interesting that along the way, when we stopped at a rest area in the Wallonia section of Luxembourg, we found this to be French-speaking only. I saw a lox sandwich in the window case of a take out place in the rest area. The sign even said "Lox", so I ordered "lox" and just got back a grunt and a very quizzical look. I tried my basic French and this time said "saumon fumé" and then everything was great and his subsequent questions to me in French were short and simple enough that I could understand and respond.
 |
| Welcome to Luxembourg! My 23rd country visited. Vianden Castle! Originally dating to ~360AD when it was first built as a fort late in the days of the Roman Empire |
 |
| Vianden Castle is more much magnificent on the exterior, as it is largely fully restored after falling into ruins. |
 |
| Schiessentümpel waterfall Stone bridge behind it was built in 1879! |
 |
| On the walk to the waterfall |
The waterfalls were our final stop on our drive to Luxembourg City. We had dinner downtown to close out the evening, before retiring at the Luxembourg City DoubleTree for the evening.
Friday, April 17: Luxembourg to UK to Home
Morning flight home on British Airways, but first, one final run in Europe, and my first ever in Luxembourg:
 |
| Mostly on trail. This was the only hilly run of our trip. |
 |
| A little bit of asphalt through fields. |
 |
| Isn't this a great photo? Credit to Matthew for suggesting I take a photo of the trail here, with the pine forest on left. |
We had originally booked Lufthansa for the full trip, but due to a strike, they cancelled our return flights via Munich and rebooked us on British Airways to Boston via London's Heathrow Airport.
 |
| An airline attendant suggested she take a photo of the two of us. Sure, why not? This is settled in on a "super-jumbo" flight to Boston, just before leaving Heathrow. |
 |
| Checking out our menu for today's meals. |
 |
| Service was great, seats and amenities were great, and food was really good as well! |
------------------------------------
Pros and Cons Highlights of our Trip:
Pros:
- Food: Great food almost everywhere we went. We had great experiences with everything from full-service restaurants to bakeries to sandwich shops inside train stations.
- No tip culture. Most Europeans working in restaurants are paid a full fair wage and tipping is not the norm nor expected.
- Trains: Aside from in Germany (see con below), the trains were all on time, clean, and with great service. For us traveling with suitcases, it was worth it to spend just a little more money to travel in first class cabins with more space.
- Safety: these are very safe countries, certainly all comparing favorably to the US. Walking alone at night in cities is not an issue at all.
- History: so much history abounds, as these countries are so much older than the US. A lot of fun to walk through medieval castles, churches, and courtyards.
- Healthy citizenry: Perhaps not surprisingly, the people here are just much more active in their everyday life than most Americans, and the obesity rate is roughly half what it is in the US.
- Favorite hotel: DoubleTree Hannover Schweizerhof. Nothing amazing, but a nice room with a balcony at a very good price (€130), and a really extensive and very good breakfast buffet, including smoked salmon!
- Favorite country visited: (Based solely on what we experienced this trip.) Belgium
- Favorite place visited: Ghent, Belgium. Amazing and very clean medieval city, with fantastic food.
- Favorite running: (Again, considering solely what we experienced this trip.) The trails of Luxembourg! Wish we had had more time to explore Luxembourg. To me, Luxembourg was an unexpected gem, although very expensive.
- Deutsche Bahn (German train system) seems more unreliable than Amtrak! This was a shock to me, as their punctuality used to be legendary, but times have changed and apparently they have suffered decades of underinvestment and deferred maintenance.
- So many public restrooms require payment to use them. Not only in city centers, but even in train stations. It just seems like a basic human right that should be free.
- Gasoline prices in Europe are sky high. Nothing new, but refilling the gas tank in Luxembourg cost the equivalent of about $7 per gallon, which was actually about $2 per gallon cheaper than where we picked up the car in Belgium!
