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BENELUX BY RAIL PASS
Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg
What
is a Benelux, anyway? It sounds like a vacuum cleaner, or a maybe a
nutritious vitamin energy drink. Is it a country? Never mind politics,
as a visitor you’re pretty much only likely to encounter Benelux
if traveling by rail around Europe with a Rail Pass. Benelux is actually
an economic union of three countries - Belgium, the Netherlands (aka
Holland) and Luxembourg whose initials form the name. These three joined
together at the end of World War II, in what became rather the model
of the later European Union, from which we get the Euro. The national
rail networks of each of the countries join together as well to make
train travel a convenient way to get around and form one unit in the
rail pass system of Eurail.
Much
of the Benelux countries where historically the lands belonging to
the Dukes of Burgundy until the beginning of the 100 years war. It
was here that Napoleon met his Waterloo.
The Dutch language is predominant in Holland and
the parts of Belgium that were the historic lowlands of Flanders. French
is the prominent language in southern and eastern Belgium, called Wallonia,
and in Luxembourg, though small parts of the east edge of Belgium speak
German, but throughout much of the modern Benelux, you’ll easily
find English spoken. There are no borders you’ll notice, though
the language of signs might change.
The
countries of Benelux feature some of the most beautiful medieval
cities of Europe, with vibrant night life of bars and music, market
squares
of sidewalk restaurants, canals, fascinating museums and ornate architecture
- flowers and windmills of Holland and sweet chocolates of Belgium. Some
cities you might want to visit include Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp,
Brussels, Bruges, Ghent, Liege, The Hague, the battlefields
of World War I in Flanders and of World War
II
in the Ardennes
Forest. Most of the main cities have rail stations right
in the heart of town, some of them underground like Brussels and
Luxembourg
(see Luxembourg)
and some of them gorgeous gems of sleek modern architecture as art (see Liege
Guillemins Station). You can see the cities on foot,
by bicycles - easy to rent often right at the station (see Bike
Touring Holland).
Rail Passes
A Benelux Pass on its own allows unlimited train travel on the national
rail networks thoughout Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. 5
days (24 hours) of unlimited train travel during a 1 month period which
can be traveled consecutively or non-consecutively. Benelux can be
chosen as a country in a multi-country Select Rail Pass when combined
with neighboring Germany or France. Rail Passes which include Benelux
can be either second class or first class (see How
Rail Passes Work).
ICE - TGV – Thalys - Eurostar
If traveling by high speed rail from Germany to France, Cologne to
Paris, the German ICE trains go to Brussels and meet the French TGV
(see TGV
France Passes) and Thalys
at the Brussels Midi Station. The TGV and ICE can be taken with just
a rail pass, though a seat reservation is necessary. It’s not that
the trains are full, they just want them to be orderly. If you don’t
know exactly when you want to travel and don’t make a reservation
when you purchase your pass, it is easy to make a reservation at
the rail station ticket office. You can even do this when connecting
trains
if you allow about 15 minutes between connections. The Thalys which
travels from Amsterdam or Cologne through Brussels to Paris requires
a separate
ticket (see Europe
High Speed Trains). The Eurostar (see Eurostar
Chunnel Train) also goes to London from Brussels, but requires
a separate ticket, with a reduced price if you have some version of a
Rail Pass. © Bargain
Travel Europe
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Deals from Rail Europe
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These articles are copyrighted and the sole property of Bargain Travel Europe and WLPV, LLC. and may not be copied or reprinted without permission.
See Also:
BELGIUM
BEER ROUTES TOURING
SWITZERLAND
SCENIC TRAINS
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