Ding Dong Daddy

I will be in Amsterdam in May for 2-3 days. We will spend the bulk of
the 11-day trip in Paris. But leaving Amsterdam by train to Paris, I
would like to take in some sites & art museums belong the way.

Definite stops:
The Hague - Art museum.
Brussells - Grand Place & Pissing Boy.

Maybe stops:
Bruges - Need to stop here? Or a waste of time?

Any other worthwhile stops?

General questions:
1) This journey better by train or one-way car hire?
2) Medium range ($100-150 US or Euros) hotels in Amsterdam, Brussels,
& Paris?
3) Which section of Amsterdam for hotel?
4) Which section of Paris for hotel?

Thanks for any info,
DDD

Miss L.Toe

    > Definite stops:
    > The Hague - Art museum.
    > Brussells - Grand Place & Pissing Boy.
    > Maybe stops:
    > Bruges - Need to stop here? Or a waste of time?

If I was you I would skip Brussels and do Brugges instead

    > General questions:
    > 1) This journey better by train or one-way car hire?

If you're taking luggage keeping it in the back of the car would be easier
(but probably not insured)

barney

In article ,
[email protected] (Ding Dong Daddy) wrote:


    > Brussells - Grand Place & Pissing Boy.

Brussels is a very handsome city, and a good place to eat, but I wouldn't
waste time on Mannekin Pis (sp?) unless you happen to be within, uh,
spitting distance. It's a rather silly statue surrounded by tourist tack
from which the rest of Brussels is nicely free.

Dbl Stv

Both Brussels and Bruges are worth a visit

http://whc.unesco.org/sites/857.htm

http://whc.unesco.org/sites/996.htm



On Wed, 26 Mar 2003 08:01:37 -0500, Ding Dong Daddy
wrote:

    >I will be in Amsterdam in May for 2-3 days. We will spend the bulk of
    >the 11-day trip in Paris. But leaving Amsterdam by train to Paris, I
    >would like to take in some sites & art museums belong the way.
    >Definite stops:
    >The Hague - Art museum.
    >Brussells - Grand Place & Pissing Boy.
    >Maybe stops:
    >Bruges - Need to stop here? Or a waste of time?
    >Any other worthwhile stops?
    >General questions:
    >1) This journey better by train or one-way car hire?
    >2) Medium range ($100-150 US or Euros) hotels in Amsterdam, Brussels,
    >& Paris?
    >3) Which section of Amsterdam for hotel?
    >4) Which section of Paris for hotel?
    >Thanks for any info,
    >DDD

Emilia

[email protected] wrote in news:[email protected]:

    > In article ,
    > [email protected] (Ding Dong Daddy) wrote:
    >
    >
    >> Brussells - Grand Place & Pissing Boy.
    >
    > Brussels is a very handsome city, and a good place to eat, but I
    > wouldn't waste time on Mannekin Pis (sp?) unless you happen to be
    > within, uh, spitting distance. It's a rather silly statue surrounded
    > by tourist tack from which the rest of Brussels is nicely free.


It is within spitting distance from the grand place... and anyway, it's
cute... worth a 2 min. walk and a chuckle...

Rak

"Ding Dong Daddy" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > I will be in Amsterdam in May for 2-3 days. We will spend the bulk of
    > the 11-day trip in Paris. But leaving Amsterdam by train to Paris, I
    > would like to take in some sites & art museums belong the way.
    > Definite stops:
    > The Hague - Art museum.
Be sure that includes the Mauritshuis, one of my favourite museums (because
it is small and my feet don't hurt after a visit?!)
From there you can wander round the lovely old parliament buildings.
Lange Voorhout is a lovely old square also nearly, and with one of the most
attractive MacDonalds in the world (really! they had to blend in with local
architecture - the food is still crap of course). This is all in walking
distrance of the Central station. Beware: go to Central Station not the
older Hollans Spoor (HS) station which is not well placed.

Delft, the next main stop on the train, is a lovely place, worth a few
hours... a nice lunch stop.

    > Brussells - Grand Place & Pissing Boy.
Pissing boy.. worth maybe 10 seconds.
As well as the superb Grand Place and neighbouring area, try to see the
Sablon square, also lovely and has (or used to have) one of the world's
great ice cream shops. The nearby art gallery (national gallery?) is pretty
good too. There is an impressive view of Brussels from in front of the
nearby Palais de Justice (High Court).
Brussels has superb restaurants but generally not those around the Grand
Place area (too touristy) except Chez Leon still may be great for mussels.
Ask locally for advice on restaurants. My knowledge is too out of date.

    > Maybe stops:
    > Bruges - Need to stop here? Or a waste of time?
Impressive but can be overrun with visitors especially at weekends.worth up
to a day.

Neaby Ghent is also fun too and less touristy. Less to see than Bruges.
The torture chamber in the splendid castle is excellent if you are not
squeamish.

    > Any other worthwhile stops?
    > General questions:
    > 1) This journey better by train or one-way car hire?

I would go by train. More relaxed and the driving can be quite frantic
especially in the Rotterdam area where highways converge and split.
Driving into Paris can be quite unnerving if you are not used to it. If you
have not seen it don't try it, unless you are from New York or some similar
insanity zone.

Have fun
Roger
(ex resident of The Hague, Rotterdam and Brussels, long time ago)

Devil

On Thu, 27 Mar 2003 11:55:38 +0800, RAK wrote:

    >
    > "Ding Dong Daddy" wrote in message
    >
    >> Brussells - Grand Place & Pissing Boy.
    > Pissing boy.. worth maybe 10 seconds.

Right. Still, worth the 10 seconds stop.

    > As well as the superb Grand Place and neighbouring area, try to see the
    > Sablon square, also lovely and has (or used to have) one of the world's
    > great ice cream shops. The nearby art gallery (national gallery?) is pretty
    > good too. There is an impressive view of Brussels from in front of the
    > nearby Palais de Justice (High Court).
    > Brussels has superb restaurants but generally not those around the Grand
    > Place area (too touristy) except Chez Leon still may be great for mussels.
    > Ask locally for advice on restaurants. My knowledge is too out of date.

I would not recommend Chez Leon. Mind you, I can't see that you would
find the places I would have in mind so I'll just keep my mouth shut.

If you are into Art Nouveau, there is lots of stuff in Brussels, mostly
from Horta, but also a couple of other guys. For sure the smallish Horta
museum which is a little gem. Too bad the Maison du Peuple is gone.

Rak

"devil" wrote in message
news[email protected]...
    > On Thu, 27 Mar 2003 11:55:38 +0800, RAK wrote:
    > >
    > > "Ding Dong Daddy" wrote in message
.................
    > > Brussels has superb restaurants but generally not those around the Grand
    > > Place area (too touristy) except Chez Leon still may be great for
mussels.
    > > Ask locally for advice on restaurants. My knowledge is too out of date.
    > I would not recommend Chez Leon. Mind you, I can't see that you would
    > find the places I would have in mind so I'll just keep my mouth shut.
I wondered if Leon was still any good, I have not been there for years but
it was still OK in the 80s.
But it was becoming to popular with tourists, usually a bad sign.
The best I found at that time was Aux Vieux Bruxelles (or something like
that) but I could not now explain how to find it.
Is it still there... and good?

Roger


.......

Jeff

Hello Ding Dong Daddy,
I did Paris-->London-->Amsterdam last summer and I really wished I had
time to go to Brugge. It was the European Capital of Culture last
year. They offer inexpensive day trips from Amsterdam to both Brussels
and Brugge although you can easy catch a train to Brugge via Antwerp.
I would suggest catching the train to Brussels for the day and then
spending the night in Brussels. You can take the high speed TGV train
from Brussels to Paris and I want to say the trip takes 2-3 hours and
is fairly inexpensive. There was a great writeup in the NY Times about
the this room the redid in the Queen's Palace that is cover in the
wings of millions of jewel beetles. The picture was really cool and
seemed to be a dark green pearly type color. Really cool. You can read
the article at

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/04/ar...04SCAR.html?th

Brussels also have a very high number of highly rated restaurants.
There are several tour companies and do a all day "Best of Amsterdam"
tour that lasts about 12 hours and cover the Hague and the cheese
markets and the fishing villages. They are pretty inexpensive and I
think the most expensive on is like 100 bucks. I wish I could remeber
the name of the tour companies, but if you check out the Dutch yellow
pages I am sure you can find a good one. For hotels I would recommend
priceline.com. You can get a good four star hotel in Amsterdam pretty
inexpensively and they also offer Brussels too. I would recommend the
"City Center" for AMS. I stayed at the Swissotel in the city center.
It is right in the center of AMS, great location. A lot of people
don't like that area because is busy and has a lot of stores like
McDonalds and KFC. I thought it was perfect because you have an ATM
right there and there are a lot of tour operators right there. You can
also catch the trams to about anywhere in the city from there and
Central Station is about a 10 minute walk and you can catch the train
to anywhere from that main station. You can also catch a train for a
day trip to Cologne from AMS, it takes about 3 hours each way I
believe. I would probably do the train over a car rental just because
it is easy to get lost and a car costs a lot to rent versus a train
and Paris and AMS are densely populated so a car is only going to be a
headache in the city. I plan on one day doing a car trip, but on your
particular itnery you can catch the highspeed train that goes 180
miles/hr from AMS to Brussels and switch in Brussles to Paris so a car
is going to cost more and be slower. Are far as where to stay
AMS-->City Center, Brussels-->don't really know but I would assume
near the famous square with all the nice restaurants. Paris is going
to be a bit of challenge I found as far as a hotel. There are a ton of
really nice hotels for 500+ night, but not too many for 100-150/night.
You do have the advantage of going when it is not peak time(I went in
July and it was tough). Paris has a problem with beggars and hookers.
They are talking about cracking down but nothing has been done yet.
Therefore, I would recommend either the left bank(st. germain and
latin quarter) of the Champs Elysee area. The left bank seems to be
free of hooker and the beggars are not as bad. The Champs is the pearl
of Paris and they have there own special police force so it is great
shape. I would probably make that my first choice, except that it is
expensive. It will not be too easy to find a hotel for 150/night, but
again you might try priceline in the Champs zones or Latin/St. germain
zones. Hotels in Europe are about one star less that a USA hotel.
Meaning that a three star hotel in Paris would be considered a two
star here. I would also recommend the Citadines St. Germain because of
the beautiful location. It is right on the river Seine and looks at
Notre Dame, it doesn't get much better. The hotel is a 2-3 star and is
moderately priced. I believe you can get it for under 200/night if you
do not have luck with Priceline. Have a great trip I am sure it will
be a lot of fun.


----------------------------------------------------
Ding Dong Daddy wrote in message news:...
    > I will be in Amsterdam in May for 2-3 days. We will spend the bulk of
    > the 11-day trip in Paris. But leaving Amsterdam by train to Paris, I
    > would like to take in some sites & art museums belong the way.
    >
    > Definite stops:
    > The Hague - Art museum.
    > Brussells - Grand Place & Pissing Boy.
    >
    > Maybe stops:
    > Bruges - Need to stop here? Or a waste of time?
    >
    > Any other worthwhile stops?
    >
    > General questions:
    > 1) This journey better by train or one-way car hire?
    > 2) Medium range ($100-150 US or Euros) hotels in Amsterdam, Brussels,
    > & Paris?
    > 3) Which section of Amsterdam for hotel?
    > 4) Which section of Paris for hotel?
    >
    > Thanks for any info,
    > DDD

Emilia

"RAK" wrote in news:[email protected]:

    >
    > "devil" wrote in message
    > news[email protected]...
    >> On Thu, 27 Mar 2003 11:55:38 +0800, RAK wrote:
    >> >
    >> > "Ding Dong Daddy" wrote in message
    > .................
    >> > Brussels has superb restaurants but generally not those around the
    >> > Grand Place area (too touristy) except Chez Leon still may be great
    >> > for
    > mussels.
    >> > Ask locally for advice on restaurants. My knowledge is too out of
    >> > date.
    >> I would not recommend Chez Leon. Mind you, I can't see that you
    >> would find the places I would have in mind so I'll just keep my mouth
    >> shut.
    > I wondered if Leon was still any good, I have not been there for years
    > but it was still OK in the 80s.
    > But it was becoming to popular with tourists, usually a bad sign.
    > The best I found at that time was Aux Vieux Bruxelles (or something
    > like that) but I could not now explain how to find it.
    > Is it still there... and good?
    >
    > Roger
    >


Chez Leon is super touristy and not very good.

Did you mean Aux Armes de Bruxelles which is 'across' form Chez Leon? It
is excellent but on the expensive side.

Ding Dong Daddy

On 28 Mar 2003 08:00:09 -0800, [email protected] (Jeff) wrote:

    >Hello Ding Dong Daddy,
    >I did Paris-->London-->Amsterdam last summer and I really wished I had...

Thanks to all for the wonderful answers, suggestions and tips for my
trip from Amsterdam-The Hague-Brussels-Paris.

But one more question please:

Where would I store my two pieces of luggage if traveling by train on
the above route and stopping for a few hours to visit & then getting
back on the train? One piece would be at least 3 ft x 2 ft.

DDD

Pieter

"Ding Dong Daddy" wrote
    > Where would I store my two pieces of luggage if traveling by train on
    > the above route and stopping for a few hours to visit & then getting
    > back on the train? One piece would be at least 3 ft x 2 ft.


most trainstations have lockers, don't worry.

P@L

Hello,
I am planning a similar trip from Paris to Bucharest. Do you think
that taking a Eurail pass could work cheaper than taking local trains
hop-by-hp? Which we do you think is better? Appreciate any
suggestions..

P@L

Ding Dong Daddy wrote in message news:...
    > On 28 Mar 2003 08:00:09 -0800, [email protected] (Jeff) wrote:
    >
    > >Hello Ding Dong Daddy,
    > >I did Paris-->London-->Amsterdam last summer and I really wished I had...
    >
    > Thanks to all for the wonderful answers, suggestions and tips for my
    > trip from Amsterdam-The Hague-Brussels-Paris.
    >
    > But one more question please:
    >
    > Where would I store my two pieces of luggage if traveling by train on
    > the above route and stopping for a few hours to visit & then getting
    > back on the train? One piece would be at least 3 ft x 2 ft.
    >
    > DDD

Stephen Ellenson

"Ding Dong Daddy" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > On 28 Mar 2003 08:00:09 -0800, [email protected] (Jeff) wrote:
    > >Hello Ding Dong Daddy,
    > >I did Paris-->London-->Amsterdam last summer and I really wished I had...
    > Thanks to all for the wonderful answers, suggestions and tips for my
    > trip from Amsterdam-The Hague-Brussels-Paris.
    > But one more question please:
    > Where would I store my two pieces of luggage if traveling by train on
    > the above route and stopping for a few hours to visit & then getting
    > back on the train? One piece would be at least 3 ft x 2 ft.
    > DDD

If you decide to go to Brugge, the storage lockers are on your right just
before you exit the main entry of the train station.

Stephen Ellenson

"Miss L.Toe" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > > Definite stops:
    > > The Hague - Art museum.
    > > Brussells - Grand Place & Pissing Boy.
    > >
    > > Maybe stops:
    > > Bruges - Need to stop here? Or a waste of time?
    > >
    > If I was you I would skip Brussels and do Brugges instead
(snip)

I agree, Bruges is a wonderful place to visit. It has a very medieval look
and feel for a modern small city. We were there for five days and especially
enjoyed it. For a couple of restaurants try the spaghetti at T'hof van
Rembrandt on Eirmarkt (egg market) and Ter Halle between Markt and Eirmarkt
for grilled specialties. Bring me back some Straffe Hendrik and I'm yours
forever :-)