Boozy Benelux: 5 Nights Around Benelux by Train

To be honest, I didn’t actually know what Benelux was before I went, and it was only at the end of the trip that I had one of those ‘duh’ moments…

“‘Be’ Belgium, ‘Ne’ Netherlands, ‘Lux’ Luxembourg!” I cried out, as if I’d just seen two trains passing on the Belgian border and worked out the theory of relativity.

And so it was that I was in Benelux with Railbookers, going from London to Luxembourg City, on to Antwerp in Belgium and The Hague in Holland, before returning to London with a pit stop in Brussels. Railbookers organise train-based holidays with the trains and accommodation booked as a package, but the freedom to do what you like when you’re there. I was there on this occasion to eat and drink a lot, and if I hadn’t considered any of these countries a perfect stag or hen holiday destination before, I was certainly about to.

London to Luxembourg by train

The first leg of the journey is London to Luxembourg. After two hours on the Eurostar to Brussels, where I snap a picture of Tin Tin on the station wall, we board a local train from Brussels to Luxembourg, which takes about three hours. The station is walking distance from the Novotel Luxembourg Centre Hotel, where we are be staying.

Relaxing Luxembourg

To be honest, although the matrix of tunnels that make up UNESCO World Heritage Site Casemates Bock is interesting, Luxembourg is a place to relax rather than trudge around too much, and I’m rather jealous of people zipping past on Segways as we lug our bodies up the cliffside walk. If like me, you value your sitting around time, I’d recommend the pretty Ville Base (lower town), where you can sit with coffee or beer at the foot of the cliffs by the River Pétrusse.
The city is really only brought to life at night.

White Night

We are lucky to be here on National Day, 23rd June, when they have White Night, a fun carnival night. And, in fact, I think if you are going to visit Luxembourg, especially if you like to party, then planning a trip around this date is worth it. There are numerous sound systems all over the city as well as beer and hot dog stands on this night. And the fireworks display is the best I’ve seen. We stumble to the bar and get a round in and I’m amazed when I sip mine, that it is smooth and velvety. I’m so used to stumbling to bars like this in Britain and getting a cup of something horrendous like Carling, that this beer is really the best thing ever. We pass sound systems and couples kissing and people dancing and stay out till 2am. And I feel like I could go on all night.

Medieval Antwerp… and Drinking

The next day we travel from Luxembourg to Antwerp, which means taking the train back to Brussels and connecting to a regional Belgian service to Antwerp. In Antwerp we check in at the Lindner Hotel & City Lounge Antwerp.
Antwerp is a beautiful Belgian city with a lot of medieval architecture. Here you can visit the former home of Peter Paul Rubens or Antwerp Zoo. But, without being crass, we are pretty much here to drink. Too early for Bollekesfeest, a festival full of local liquors, beer, biscuits and pickled herring, we head to the Anvers distillery to try the Elixir d’Anvers, which has been around for 150 years. Nobody in the city seems to like it, including some of the people who actually make it, but it’s worth trying something that was once even given to even the horses by the half bottle. The Advocaat (egg nog, basically) is more tempting. While in the city we also have a beer tasting with the guys from the Duvel Brewery, with a beer that is one of my favourite of the trip, transcending the gap between beer and wine.

Spectacular Antwerp Station

The final part of the trip takes us from the spectacular Antwerp station on the 30 minute train to The Hague, where we check in at the Parkhotel Den Haag Netherlands. We go on a bike ride of the city and although the guide is really unsympathetic to our inability to ride like the people who live there (and seem to see the bike as an extension of their bodies), the tour is lovely. The guys at Lola’s Bike’s and Coffee we stop at are really nice, and very enthusiastic about the special coffees they have created. We stop off at my favourite drinking spot of the trip, the Van Kleef distillery, where we eat Herring in the garden and try so many different liqueurs we get lost in a Harry Potteresque world of colourful bottles with flavours like apple strudel or chocolate.

Stripping off

The final morning sees us stripping off and running into the freezing cold sea by the bar we’re eating breakfast at, before being handed towels by the bemused staff, and getting the bus back to the hotel to get our things and travel from The Hague to London via Rotterdam, where we pick up the Eurostar and travel back to London.

I return with more bottles than I know what to do with, a fan of Benelux by rail.