[PRCo] Re: Visiting a Belgian PCC

[John Swindler]

>Fred Schneider replied to:
>
>Jim Holland wrote:
> > Good Morning!
> >
> > >> Jim wrote::
> >
> > >> "The Belgian(?) three section articulated with
> > >> One Large Picture Window in each section is
> > >> Absolutely Astounding  --  would dearly
> > >> love to see it in person and to ride it."
> >
>
>Don't want to sound sarcastic, Jim, but the way you do that is go to a
>travel agency (or on-line) and buy an airline ticket.  Wishing and "dearly
>loving" doesn't work any better than buying lottery tickets.  If you cannot
>find a convenient flight from SFO to Brussels, try going to Shipool Airport
>in Amsterdam (trains in the basement will get you where you want to go) or
>Charles de Gaule Airport, Paris and then bus or taxi to Gare du Nord in
>Paris where you can catch an ultra fast train to Brussels ... be there in
>less than two hours.
>
>You buy the ticket.  Some airlines have agreements with hotels to get a
>discounted price on a really nice room.   Because Europe is cold and dark 
>in
>the winter, that is when the best airline prices are.  I've seen round 
>trips
>from Philadelphia in the $250 range (including taxes) in January versus 
>$750
>to $1000 in mid summer.  John Swindler has noticed that the airlines are
>already down into the normal winter rates this October.  But if the purpose
>is to ride trams, eat mussels and Belgian pancakes, drink wine, visit
>museums and art galleries, and go to the theater and you don't care when 
>the
>sun goes down, winter is fabulous.  Europe isn't overrun with those damn
>tourists in the winter ... much better than trying to look at the Mona Lisa
>in the Louvre in summer over 100 heads from 20 feet away.  Hotel vacancy
>rates are much higher in winter so hotel prices are lower.  (Europe is a
>summer destination for Americans just like Miami and Orlando are targets 
>for
>the Europeans in winter.)



Concerning air fares, Fred, I've already seen $179 round trip New York to 
London.  Even better, have also seen some 6 night packages for both Paris 
and London for around $480.  That's air fare plus hotel.

In years past, like 1990s, best winter price was around $300.  Three years 
ago BritAir advertised a Jan/Feb price of $199 rt, which was matched by 
several other airlines.  I called Fred to give him a heads-up, and when I 
mentioned the $199 price, that was the first time I ever heard him stop 
breathing! (:>)  Yes, we both took advantage of the bargain.

If you want to know what it was like to ride PCC cars around Pittsburgh, 
then ride the red and cream PCC cars in Antwerp, particularly route 3.

Belgium Rail has a five day (actually 5 out of 17 days) rail pass for about 
$50, available only in Belgium.  Main lines are generaly half hour headway; 
hourly on branches, and mostly electric multiple-unit trains.   Very 
impressive was the ability of the train crew to reverse direction at 
Aarschot in about four minutes.

John


>
>Next you might want to look at <http://www.b-rail.be>, the website of the
>Belgian State Railways.  You want to ride PCC cars?  That website will tell
>you that you can get from Brussels to Antwerp for €5.40 (about $6.00), Gent
>for €6.60 (about $7.20) and Ostend for €12.60 (about $13.80).  Timetables?
>They are on-line too but why bother  ... at least once an hour on the
>mainlines.  Rail passes?  Valuable only if you want to travel constantly 
>...
>like every day. Check Rail Europe's website for passes ... most countries
>have them and I think there is one for all three low-countries.
>
>Money?  Take a mac card or two and draw money from your bank at home in
>Euros over there.  [Checking accounts only ... if you need to access a
>savings account, then get a separate MAC card for that account ... for one
>bank I have two cards, one for checking and the other for a money market
>account.  And one on a third bank if one screws up.  One bank is PLUS
>network, the other CIRRUS, so if there is also a network problem I'm ok on
>the other.]   Credit cards are getting more use (or abuse) every year ...
>almost all hotels and midrange or higher restaurants take them.  You carry
>cash for sidewalk food kiosks and small stores.  Travelers checks?  I
>haven't used them in five years or more ... too costly.
>
>Language?  Belgium is officially bi-lingual and allegedly STIB is not
>allowed to hire a motorman who can't speak both French and Flemish.
>Reality?  Africans don't always speak both languages!  But once in a while
>you will even find someone who speaks English.  There is a 24 hour ticket
>(24 huere carte) at least in Brussels ... don't speak French?  Try saying
>carte and using the international sign language symbol by drawing a circle
>around your watch.  Hotels?  No big deal.  In the worst case scenario, draw
>a picture of a bed with one stick figure ...  draw new moons over it to
>specify the number of days.  But you probably won't need that ... most 
>hotel
>clerks know the basic "hotel English"  room, one night, with bath.  Food?
>If you really like to experiment, buy a copy of the Marling Menu Master for
>the French language (red, white, blue cover).  But I'm giving you the
>absolute worst case scenario.  Remember, the smaller the country and the
>fewer people there are speaking that language, the greater the chance they
>will speak English.  As Frits van Dam, who lives in a suburb of the Hague,
>said to me ... "You can go 3,000 miles on English.  I can only go 100 miles
>on Dutch."   The result? Frits speaks Dutch, English, German, and French 
>and
>he can stumble around in five other tongues.  The low countries are a great
>place for initial immersion in another culture because you can get by quite
>comfortably in English ... after the first day or so and you learn the
>ropes.
>
>Knowing their language is not necessary.  Reality is you will learn it if
>you have so much fun you want to keep going back but realize you would have
>a whole lot more enjoyment if you could better communicate.  I know this
>conflicts with what I said the other day ... I truly believe in knowing
>other languages but I also have to be realistic.
>
>Customs changed the amount you can bring home without duty ... its now $800
>per person.  Still not enough to bring a used PCC home.
>
>Guidebooks?  There are tons of them out there.  There is a market.  
>Michelin
>(Green Guides)  probably has the greatest site detail in the least weight,
>but they are loosing that advantage as they try to print color pictures.
>Baedecker has more glitz and often arranges contents by areas ... both an
>advantage and a disadvantage. DK has some nice drawings.  And I collect too
>many of them.
>

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