My wife and I will be in Belgium visiting friends in November. We want to rent a car and drive from Antwerp to Rothenburg for a retreat we lead there. We usually just take the train, but would like to take our time and take a 2-3 days to drive this time. Do you have any advice? Are there any sights we need to see on that trip? Thanks for any and all your help!
Posted by
Green Bay
20799 posts
Where to after Rothenburg? Back to Belgium to fly home?
I don't have personal experience, but I have heard the traffic around Antwerp is hellacious. You might consider taking a train to Aachen and renting a car there. In addition, it will come with a German Umweltsplakatte (Environmental sticker), which will give you one less thing to worry about on your drive.
Posted by
OP
Edmond, OK
8 posts
Thank you, Sam! We will be driving to Frankfurt to fly back home after the retreat in Rothenburg.
Posted by
The Netherlands
1521 posts
So you plan to rent a car in Belgium and drop it off in Germany? Have you considered the one-way drop off fee the rental company is going to charge you? And the fact that your Belgian rental car likely won’t have the umweltplakette you need to be allowed to drive in certain German cities?
Posted by
Green Bay
20799 posts
Then you should definitely take a train to Germany and rent a car there.
Posted by
Wyckoff, NJ, USA
7719 posts
I'd comment that Brussels (and Antwerp) are extremely well connected to Aachen and Cologne, and individual tickets bought a couple of months in advance are very cheap (if not changeable.) This was long ago, but I once rented a car just on the edge of town, but walkable from downtown Cologne. It was in a hotel lobby, I think, one of the major companies.
I would drive to Monschau first. But I would spend a night in Cologne, because it is a rich destination, and mostly walkable from the HBF. Note that Cologne is on a very un-scenic part of the Rhine, so you should not confuse this as a starting point for the "scenic Middle Rhine boat ride", i.e. Bingen to Boppard.
Driving in the Antwerp-Brussels area is a pain. Having said that, if you are interested in WW II, it is very difficult to visit the chilling Nazi site, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Breendonk (near Mechelen, Belgium) unless you have a car. Since you are going right by Frankfurt, you might find the Fachwerkstraße headed section of my Trip Report useful:
Posted by
OP
Edmond, OK
8 posts
Thank you all! This is very helpful!