It was a tiring day of travel and exploration. We called it a night quite early to catch some rest. We stayed at the Hotel Meininger in Brussels. It was quite convenient since the hotel was walking distance of the city center. There was a also a nearby tram stop. The tram stop was convenient for us because it bring us to the railway station which was still a 30 minute walk away. Anyway, we were told that there was an impending railway strike but we weren’t sure when it was or has it even started. That would be very troublesome since we will be going out of town and we will be relying on the trains a lot. My friend was considering renting a car for this trip but I didn’t see the point since the train system was very convenient. Besides, there would be no Belgian beer if we were to rent a car.
We took the train to the Brussels Midi Railway Station. The name was very confusing to me since I would see Brussels Midi or Brussels Zuid used interchangeably. Now, I know that Brussels Midi is French while Brussels Zuid is Dutch. It basically refers to Brussels South Railway Station. There were kiosk to purchase tickets and it was easy enough to understand. The trick was to know where to get off, we just took a chance and bought them anyway. The train station itself wasn’t that big, considering that this was supposed to be one of the important stations for Brussels. I haven’t been to Brussels Central but I suspect that it would be larger than this station.
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