2 hours near Brussels Midi Station

[MinnieMountain]

I’ve got 12-2pm to kill around Brussels Midi station on Monday, because I don’t trust Deutsche Bahn not to mess up my connecting train travelling there.

What can I do? Not bothered about lunch. I’ll have a rucksack and a small wheelie case.

Are DB not reliable? Travelling from Köln to Brussels in a couple of months and worrying about making the Eurostar now!

If I were you I'd put my case in left luggage and go for a wander, get a coffee, etc. Depends what the weather's like in terms of what you might do. I find TripAdvisor helpful for making plans in specific places.

i wouldn’t recommend a walk around Brussels South, it is dodgy as hell, even if very close from the centre.
Take a train to Brussels-Central, takes 5 minutes, and you will arrive straight in the historical centre, near the Grand Place, it is full of shops, monuments, restaurants, pedestrian, you can have an easy wander around.
The pavement in Brussels can be a PITA for wheels and heels, but you can leave your luggage at the consignment in Brussels South (but you ll need euro coins to pay if I remember)

You can walk into Central Brussels in about 30 mins but you could also get a metro ticket to save yourself some time. Brussels city centre isn’t that big, so if you get a metro ticket you could see Sablon, Grand Place, the Palace etc within an hour / hour and a half if you are just wandering about. But make sure to be back at Midi in good time for the Eurostar checkin / security as it can take some time.

If you're travelling by Eurostar you can use your eurostar ticket to get a local train to Brussels Central Station. It's about 5 minutes away. From there you can go to the Magritte museum and there's a nice park. Or you can just wander around the Galleries Hubert and buy some chocolate and drink coffee. That's what I'd do.
I know you'll want to stay close to Midi but it really only takes a few minutes on the train to Central and the trains are very regular/frequent. It's much nicer than the area around Midi.

It's grim and 2 hours not really long enough to get anywhere better and find your bearings. Plus it's February so it'll be even more grim, almost certainly cold, windy and raining so you won't want to walk anywhere.

Honestly just go to a cafe in the station and Mumsnet.

Are DB not reliable? Travelling from Köln to Brussels in a couple of months and worrying about making the Eurostar now!

No, DB is not reliable.

You may want to mug up on what to do if your arrival into Brussels is delayed. This page may be a good starting point
https://help.eurostar.com/faq/uk-en/question/What-happens-if-I-miss-my-connection-due-to-a-delay-or-cancellation

The area around Brussels Midi is an absolute dump and I wouldn’t walk around any more than you have to.

There are some cafes behind the station which are okay. I’ve had perfectly reasonable meals at Brasserie Belge. Take a book/iPad and chill out.

That's me told. Thanks for the link.

I'd agree with PP. Midi is not especially nice and has been in a permanent state of construction as far as I can remember!
Personally in that short time, I'd go for lunch/dinner rather than sightseeing. There's some passable places in striking distance.
If you absolutely want to go and see something then as PP suggested pick a thing such as Grand Place or Sablon and do that. I'd not attempt to do several things. If I were you Grand Place and have a coffee or beer in one of the bars on the Grand Place and enjoy the spectacular surroundings.

I couldn't be arsed sightseeing with a wheelie case, 2 hours isn't that long. Settle into to a cafe with a book or internet.

Sorry, I didn't mean to lecture! But I've read so many accounts of problems with that very route on forums - and had to check what HOTNAT meant as it cropped up so often.

It's a shame, as I'd like to go back to the Rhine valley and it should be so easily doable by train rather than by plane.

I agree the area around Midi is pretty awful but you can get the train or metro to Centrale in a few minutes and go and see the Grand Place.

Using my Eurostar ticket to get to Brussels Central sounds like a good idea. I want to do something as I’ll be sitting on trains most of the day.

Sadly DB ain’t what it used to be @NigelHarmansNewWife . DS and I had big delays both ways when we went to Munich in October. The only positive was that the travel centre in Frankfurt gave us new reservations for the next train without a murmur. My 17 minute change in Karlsruhe on the way to Baden-Baden yesterday turned into a 4 minutes.

There are loads of left luggage lockers at the station. So easy to use. We went recently and stored our luggage while we spent an afternoon exploring before catching the Eurostar to London.

If you had a little longer I'd say go and visit the Atomium - you would have time just to see it and take photos but not to go inside. You could easily get to Grand Place by underground for a look around the shops. The indoor shopping arcades are quite spectacular.

The staff at the station were really knowledgable and helpful in telling us how to get tickets and which routes to take to get around.

For 2 hours and a potentially delayed train, i wouldn't go anywhere really. Have a look round the chocolate shops in the station and then there are some brasseries just outside the entrance nearest the Eurostar where you can sit and have a drink. Gare Du Midi is not a complete den of iniquity - especially during the daytime - you just need to keep a very close eye on your belongings - like you should at any major train station. You could put your case in left luggage - there are lockers near the internation ticket office - and get the tram to Central station for a quick look at Grand Place but timing is tight. Does your 2 hours exclude the check in time? There is not much past security in the Eurostar terminal these days - just a massive duty free shop .

PS for any Belgian station - you now have to specify this when buying the ticket.

No one ever checks between midi and central stations (it’s less than a mile, 3 minutes)
But, to play by the rules, the ticket is EUR 2.5, you can easily buy it in advance at
https://www.belgiantrain.be/en/tickets/bundles?rp=1
And see on which platform is the next train to central easily

You can go to the centre by tram but the tram platform is definitely dodgy, dirty and smelly, and there are several tramlines stopping there so you can take the wrong one, and it takes 15 mins. The upside is that you can pay contactless when you get on (but it’s more than 2.5)

The 2 hours is obviously if a miracle happens and my DB train is on time. It excludes my Eurostar check in time.

Thank you @AngelsWithSilverWings that’s very helpful.

This might or might not be helpful, but when I was in Bruges & trying to find the platform for Bruxelles-Midi, I almost missed the train because I didn’t realise that it was up as Brussels-Zuid.

If it excludes check in time for Eurostar then you've hardly any time at all. You need to allow a fair bit for that

You’ve misunderstood me @Whyherewego .

Where are you coming from? Brussels' major stations are all on the same main line: Brussels Midi/Zuid, Brussels Central, Brussels Nord, and I think the majority of the trains from Germany stop at all of them (happy to be corrected here). So maybe you could get off at Brussels Central, which as PP have said is indeed central, for a couple of hours, then hop back on a train to Midi for your Eurostar.

The ICE train stops at Gare du Nord (which i would definitely avoid), not Centrale. The Eurostar (ex Thalys) only at Midi.

Predictably my ICE was 35 minutes late, so I didn’t bother 🙄

This thread has given me ideas for an afternoon I will definitely have with DS in central Brussels in the summer though.

Glad I'm not the only one who has done this!