Zundert Flower Parade ticket. There is no reserved seating on the journey from Brussels to Antwerp. Travel Passports Baggage Please ensure your 10 year British Passport is not out of date and is valid for a full three months As with most trains, passengers are responsible for beyond the duration of your visit. EU, Andorra, carrying baggage onto and off the train. Baggage Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino or Switzerland can be stored on overhead shelves or at the valid national identification cards are also entrance to the carriages. Trollies are available at St acceptable for travel to Belgium. Pancras and Lille, but bags do need to be carried on to the platform. Porters are sometimes but not always available at St Pancras. Visas Travel Editions recommends a luggage delivery British and EU passport holders are not required to service called thebaggageman, where your suitcase have a visa. can be picked up from your home before departure and delivered straight to your hotel; therefore For all other passport holders please check the visa removing the worry about carrying your cases onto requirements with the appropriate embassy. and off the trains. For further information: Belgian embassy: 17 Grosvenor Crescent, London http://www.thebaggageman.com SW1X 7EE. Tel: (0)20 7470 3700. [email protected] For visa information: Tel: 0871 376 0023, or visit Labels www.vfs-be-uk.com. Please use the luggage labels provided. It is useful Open Mon-Fri 0900-1200. to have your home address located inside your suitcase should the label go astray. Transfers Tickets There is no coach transfer in Antwerp as the hotel You will be issued with return train tickets. is extremely close to the train station so it is quicker Please take care not to lose your tickets and please to walk. check that the details on your tickets are accurate. Your ticket is non-transferable and non-refundable. No refund can be given for non-used portions. Special Requests Standard Premier on Eurostar tickets is indicated by If you haven’t already, please notify Travel Editions two asterisks in the class type section in the top of any special requests as soon as possible to allow right hand corner. A light meal will be served to sufficient time to make the necessary passengers travelling Standard Premier on Eurostar. arrangements. Standard class Eurostar tickets do not include any food or drink on board, although there is a buffet car serving drinks and snacks. Onward tickets do not include any food or drink on board, although a buffet car is available. Train Seats On the Eurostar you have reserved seat and carriage numbers which are shown clearly on your Accommodation The Radisson Blu Astrid Hotel, Antwerp Usually, a discretionary service charge is added to Ideally situated in the heart of Antwerp, close to the your bill in restaurants and bars, and no further city’s historic train station and approximately 20 tipping is required, although if service is considered minutes’ walk to the city’s cathedral, the smart excellent, it is customary to round up the bill. four-star Radisson Blu Astrid Hotel is lovely. The hotel facilities include breakfast room, restaurant, bar, sauna, Jacuzzi, health and wellness centre, massage therapy, indoor pool, and even an in- Drink house aquarium, Aquatopia, boasting 10,000 exotic Over 400 beers are brewed in Belgium – ranging fish and reptiles in natural surroundings. Bedrooms from the mass-produced lagers like Stella Artois to have been recently refurbished and boast free high- the local, artisanal microbreweries. You will find speed wireless internet access, flat-screen everything from brown ales, amber ales, white televisions, private bathroom or shower, telephone, beers, Flemish reds, Indian pale ales, to stouts and safe, coffee/tea making facilities, as well as views of Lambic beers. Trappist beers, such as Chimay, either Astrid Square or the historic cityscape. Achel, Orval, Rochefort, Westmalle and Westyleteren, are brewed in Trappist monasteries, For more information please visit the hotel’s website: with monks taking an active part in the production http://www.radissonblu.com/astridhotel-antwerp process and the profits supporting the monastery. Bières d’Abbaye, the best known being Leffe and Grimbergen, however, are commercially brewed, just using the name and recipe of former monastic Food breweries. Try a Hoegaarden for a white beer, Belgium’s food specialities extend far beyond just Lambics and Guezes for oak-aged beers, a Duvel for beer, chocolate, chips and waffles. This small a blonde ale, a local Cantillon (microbrewed in country has rich local resources with fish and Brussels), or if you prefer something sweeter, the mussels harvested from the North Sea, pheasant, cherry-flavoured Kriek. rabbit and venison from the forested hills of the Ardennes, and excellent beef and lamb from the The local spirit is Jenever, similar to gin, originally Flemish polders. flavoured with juniper berries. Traditional dishes include moules frites, stoemp (mashed potato with leeks and carrots), witloof en oven (endives wrapped in ham and covered in Meals included in the price of your holiday are: cheese sauce), waterzooi (fish or chicken and vegetable broth), paling in’t groen (eel with a Breakfast – daily spinach, herbs and white wine sauce), lapin aux pruneaux (rabbit cooked with prunes and beer), Faison à la brabançonne (pheasant cooked in butter with Brussel sprouts and endives), and filet américain (or steak tartare, raw mincemeat mixed with egg, onion and capers). You will find plenty of places to enjoy a meal or snack, ranging from the Michelin-Starred to the humble fritkot (chip stand). Watch out for restaurants offering a lunchtime special set menu – dagschotel or plat du jour – they offer great value for money. Destination The pretty town of Zundert comes alive each year Ghent to celebrate the oldest flower parade in Europe Ghent is a vibrant university city and Flanders’ featuring huge, elaborate and impressive sculptures spiritual citadel. Crisscrossed by canals and while music and street theatre add to the carnival waterways, its old town is perfect for exploration on atmosphere. Birthplace of Vincent Van Gogh, the foot and it is here that you will find a wealth of theme for 2015 is about the artist’s life and sights. One of the city’s great attractions, St commemorating 125 years since his death. Enjoy Baafskathedraal, is where you’ll find the famed 15th the show and take this wonderful opportunity to century Adoration of the Mystic Lamb altarpiece by enjoy full day tours to picturesque Bruges, ancient the van Eyck brothers, which is widely regarded as Antwerp and historic Ghent. one of the most important works of art in the world. Do not miss the 12th century Castle of the Details of places of interest included in your tour: Counts, the 91 metre high Gothic belfry, the 15th century Cloth Hall, town hall and the picturesque Zundert Flower Parade Graslei quayside, which is lined with ancient houses Lively festivities and colourful flowers fill Zundert on in a pure Flemish architectural style dating from the the first weekend of September when the town 12th to 17th centuries. There are notable museums, hosts the big parade of flower floats accompanied too, including the Museum voor Schone Kunsten by live music and street theatre. The impressive with its collection of ancient and modern paintings. creations, often mounted on lorries, use only dahlias and each of twenty hamlets cultivates its For more information about Ghent: own blooms to create a float with skills which are http://www.visitgent.be/ handed down from generation to generation. Since it began in 1936, the celebrations have gone from strength to strength and attract up to 50,000 Bruges spectators annually. Picturesque and enchanting, Bruges is set on a labyrinth of canals lined with magnificent medieval For more information about the Zundert Flower Parade: buildings. It is home to a wealth of artistic and http://www.corsozundert.nl/home-EN/ architectural heritage, reflecting its rich history as the cradle of Flemish painting and its economic significance as a textile and trade centre up to the Antwerp late 15th century. The focal point of the city is the With a characteristically Flemish old town, a maze impressive Market square, flanked by magnificent of cobbled streets, at the heart of a thriving modern houses with crow-stepped gables, old guildhalls, the city, Antwerp is a pleasure to explore. Home and belfry, and the covered market. Elsewhere, the Burg birthplace of Rubens, the city has a strong artistic square is lined by some of the city’s most heritage reflected in its host of fine museums and impressive buildings. You could also explore the churches. As many Flemish settlements, Antwerp medieval city walls, St. Salvator Cathedral, boasts a market square surrounded by 16th and 17th picturesque Begijnhofalmshouses and Onze-Lieve- century guildhalls, whilst other unmissable sights Vrouwekerek (Church of Our Lady), famed for its include the Gothic Cathedral of Our Lady and belfry, Madonna and Child by Michelangelo. The city the church of St Paul, home to a collection of boasts several superb museums including the paintings by Antwerp masters, and Rubens’ House. Groeninge Museum, housing a superb collection of The city has many museums including the Plantin- Belgian art, and the Memling Museum set in the th Moretus, housed in the former print works of famed 12 century hospital of St John’s, one of the most printer Plantin, and which contains the renowned beautiful buildings in Bruges, and housing splendid Gutenberg Bible, one of only 13 in the world. religious masterpieces. For more information about Antwerp: For more information about Bruges: http://www.visitantwerpen.be/ https://bezoekers.brugge.be/en Brussels Europe’s administrative capital and easily reached in just over 2 hours from London; Brussels is lively, wealthy and receptive and has always been willing to embrace new ideas and philosophies.