With the car? I go by train, and then either by bike or tram. Much easier

thunfischbrot 14 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> Like every year, I decided to travel to FOSDEM by car. It is not the most relaxed option, but it comes with one very important advantage: arriving early enough to secure a parking spot directly on campus. That also means the journey starts very early in the morning, long before the city fully wakes up.

Curiously backwards. That's one way of reframing a disadvantage as an advantage. The train connection seems to be 3h15m to 3h30m from Neuss train station to FOSDEM. A single connection for the long-distance train in Cologne, the rest is local public transport within Brussels.

(The OP may been /s without me realizing.)

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0ct4via 13 hours ago | parent [-]

The OP goes on to genuinely talk about the advantage of being able to leave when they desire (usually only attending day 1), and the observation that their leaving early was worthwhile, as they were first in line to access the car parking area —- so it would seem very much to not be /s.

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ongy 13 hours ago | parent [-]

Which probably also relates to DB pricing.

Being flexible with DB is expensive. Getting somewhere at all is generally cheap. Getting somewhere at a reasonable time is usually ok~ish priced. But being able to just take any train? €€€

	▲	lucb1e 13 hours ago \| parent [-]
		And reliable. This is why I (near the border) drive across the border and take the train through Belgium. https://belgiantrain.be for finding trains and tickets to/from the nearest station, Etterbeek (or use another station if you want to take the tram, where you just swipe a bank card). The ticket is valid for any train going to your destination. For those <26yo, the price is discounted. Welkenraedt is an intercity station with free parking that goes directly to Brussels, in case that happens to be near to someone reading this Same with the Netherlands. Sadly no intercity stations have free parking but Nuth is on the path north and the highway exit basically ends in its parking lot. After a few stops you can switch to an intercity to Amsterdam

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dwedge 10 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Almost everyone I spoke to this year had issues with the trains into Belgium. Cancellations, delays, strikes.

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throw567643u8 8 hours ago | parent [-]

Was the Eurostar delayed, does anyone know?

	▲	benou 7 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		My experience was good: on my way in Paris -> Brussels arrived 10min early, and on my way out Brussels -> Paris I had ~15min delay (apparently because Police had to board the train before Brussels).
	▲	danlitt 6 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		No, I don't think Eurostar was affected at all.

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TacticalCoder 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Brussels is my native city: I grew up there. If you're at peak traffic hours (8-10am and 3-6pm) during weekdays then, depending where to where you go, there can be really bad traffic jams.

But outside of these hours the car is simply much more convenient. I lived in Brussels for 42 years and did everything that wasn't walking distance by car (very mostly in the pre- Uber days). You simply know where the parking spots are and it's too convenient to have your own car when you come out of the restaurant, without to have to worry about the last bus / last tram / getting mugged.

TFA's author went up early in the morning: he's dodging traffic jams.

For example FOSDEM if I'm concerned there'd be no spot? I'd park on the other side of the Bois de la Cambre and then walk to the campus.

Bicycling? It's nice when you don't have a nice bicycle. Otherwise it's gone in 60 seconds. I also don't see many people bicycling when the weather is bad and, well, let's get real: it rains a huge freaking lot in Brussels.

P.S: FOSDEM is happening in the Ixelles district, adjacent to the Uccle district (the Bois de la Cambre is on both districts). These are the two poshest, classiest, most expensive districts of Brussels with very few high-rises and very few soviet-style buildings with lots of apartments (these exists but in other districts). It's as if FOSDEM was taking place in Beverly Hills. In these posh areas there are parking spots.

	▲	CorrectHorseBat 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Brussels cycling infrastructure has improved a _lot_ in the last decade and the number of cyclists is growing every year while the number of households with a car is decreasing every year (less than half of the househols have a car now). As they say, there's no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing. The weather in the Netherlands is not very different and it doesn't stop them. Also the public transportation is by far the best of the country, but that doesn't say a lot.

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ahartmetz 12 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Except for this year with the public transport strikes in Belgium... But I'm not going to waste more than half of two days driving next time.