Where Would You Go for Four Days Before Moselle Cruise?

[Suzanne123]

Booked the Avalon Active Discovery on the Moselle cruise that begins in Remich and ends at Frankfurt next September. We have four full days to explore prior to embarkation.  Where would you spend the time?  Trains are OK.  I don’t want to rent a car.  Fly into Luxembourg? Brussels maybe? Prefer small towns and hiking or walking. Thanks.

[OneSixtyToOne]

39 minutes ago, Suzanne123 said:

 Fly into Luxembourg? Brussels maybe? Prefer small towns and hiking or walking. Thanks.

 

Have you ever been to Bruges?

[Suzanne123]

I have, but daughter who is going with me has not.  That’s a lovely town.  If we flew into Brussels, we could do that as a day trip.  
I was just looking at a map.  Ghent and Antwerp are also possibilities if we start from Brussels.  Or would you stay in one of those towns instead of spending four nights in Brussels?

[OneSixtyToOne]

54 minutes ago, Suzanne123 said:

I have, but daughter who is going with me has not.  That’s a lovely town.  If we flew into Brussels, we could do that as a day trip.  
I was just looking at a map.  Ghent and Antwerp are also possibilities if we start from Brussels.  Or would you stay in one of those towns instead of spending four nights in Brussels?

Ghent is lovely and old Bruges is pedestrian friendly. You can spend days walking around. Staying right in Bruges would be my choice.

[ural guy]

We stayed in Ghent and enjoyed our time there, easy train from Brussels.  I would recommend not jumping around too much.  Typing this in between packing up for our ‘jump’ day.  You always seem to lose more time than you’d think going from city to city, hotel to hotel.  2 nights somewhere is really 1.5 days to liok around.

 

Wherever you end up, if they have the chocolate on a stick for hot chocolate back home, stock up!  They are amazing.

[Canal archive]

Bruges would get my vote the sheer amount of interesting history about the place is amazing and the hot chocolate and beautiful lace is to die for. Whatever you decide on enjoy!

[ural guy]

Only thing with Brugge is I think September is still swamped with day tourist.  

[notamermaid]

As a small city Bruges for sure, absolutely charming. Much busier these days than when I was there though in the 90's.

 

14 hours ago, Suzanne123 said:

Fly into Luxembourg? Brussels maybe? Prefer small towns and hiking or walking. Thanks.

You can of course fly into Luxembourg which then gets you close to Remich. Somehow I would go for that and leave the Lowlands (Belgium and the Netherlands)) for another in-depth trip - perhaps the next cruise during Spring? Luxembourg has free public transport within the country and they have some great hiking areas to the East, complete with castles. Are you interested in WWII history? Then you can explore some sites in Luxembourg. I am a fan of Metz in France, the big town on the Moselle, but not so big that it is overwhelming. It has a direct train connection from Luxembourg. Train travel is great for exploring all those countries, whatever you decide I am sure it will be a fantastic experience.

 

This is Luxembourg: https://www.visitluxembourg.com/

 

Perhaps you feel like roaming around in this thread:

Have fun planning.

 

notamermaid

 

 

 

[Suzanne123]

Thanks so much everyone.  Lots to consider. 😊