u/KDFree16

Still formulating an itinerary for spring that will include much of Belgium and adding in Amsterdam and Leiden, Northern France, Luxembourg City. Some of the beautiful places I want to visit are an hour or more away by train from a large city , so a day trip would already take 3 hours round trip.

Would it make more sense to just go stay in the smaller town even for a night? Train in the morning to be there by lunch, drop bag at hotel and have the day and night and next half day as well before leaving, instead of train in morning to spend 4-5 hours before getting the train back. It doesn't sound like it does any location much justice.

I read "Bruges is really a day trip destination" but if I am getting a tour to Ypres from there it's gonna be a couple nights.
Are people just rising at the crack of dawn for these day trips? Dinner in the destination before heading back on late trains?

I plan to just have 1 carryon rolling bag and a purse/bag.
Also this trip will be about a month.

Give me some insight into how your trips have gone please. I feel like I don't want to miss anything but also don't want to be so tired I can't enjoy it.i

Have won airfare to Belgium and am formulating an itinerary.
I've never been to any of these places before so of course I have the "I want to see it all" mentality. I usually choose 1 country for 2 weeks (also doing Portugal in the summer), but Belgium seems so central I got excited.
Tell me where to slow down.

Planning 4 weeks and using trains. I tried to see where in a 2-hour train ride I could visit.
*Fly in to Brussels
*3 days Amsterdam
*2 days Cologne
*2 days Brussels (to switch travel partners)
*2 days Ghent
*3 days Bruges (days to Ypres and coast)
*4 days Brussels (days to Halle/Waterloo, Liege or Namur)
*(switch travel partners)
*2 days Paris (short but just highlights, she's been before)
*2 days Metz (grandfather buried in Lorraine so day over to the cemetery)
*1 Luxembourg City
*1 Dinant and back to Brussels
*2 Utrecht (day to Keukenhof)
*1 Brussels
*Fly home

I'm headed to Belgium in the spring and trying to see what itineraries make sense.
For now please tell me if my stays make sense? We will use trains to get around.
Fly in to Brussels
Day 2 and 3 Ghent (day trip Tournai?)
Day 2-5 Bruges (day in Ypres, day on coast)
Day 6-8 Brussels (day trip Halle and Waterloo, day trip Liege or Namur)
Fly home on day 9

When I fill my 2001 Rav 4 I get a Distance to Empty of about 376-415 miles.

Couple of days ago I was fully on E. Filled up my tank and it was 12+ gallons according to the pump. But my Distance to Empty was only 315.

Considered it may be an issue with my vehicle but to test I went to a gas station last night and filled what it was down and my Distance to Empty went back up to 380.

Any ideas? My brain then assumed the gas station was making their pumps speed up somehow so it looks like a tank is full when it is not but it clicked off "at the top"normally when I pumped.

Editing to add the next day's fill up was after only driving 30 miles on that initial fillup but it took 4 more gallons. I get 30 mpg regularly.

Coming from the U.S. Just in the beginning stages of planning an itinerary for April. I plan to use public transportation for most of my trip but was thinking a car might be better for a day if I want to see Hallerbos in the morning, then Waterloo, and I could go on to the Stella tour in Leuven. Does that seem like the smartest option? I feel like trains and buses would take a lot of time that could be saved driving directly. If I rent the afternoon before, so I can make it for the morning bluebells, how is parking in Brussels? No idea where I will be staying as of yet.

All suggestions welcome :)

I do not understand why I get notices daily from the app and in my email that my insurance is expiring and that I need to upload new documents, when you are not able to get it verified until 24 hours before the old one actually expires.

Why can't the app be designed so that if I upload my new ins card a week early, it just sits there ready and dated? Then the day comes of the actual expiration and old card disappears and new one immediately activates. It doesn't seem that difficult. But telling me every day to handle something I have handled every day is ridiculous.

"Your vehicle insurance is expiring".
I wish the app would turn down the number of alerts for this.
Especially since it does not let us do anything about it until around 24 hours of it actually expiring.
I remember trying to for days when I was first driving to "remedy" this. Even calling support was no help. Then finally someone told me that while the old one is still active you cannot add the new one. The app can not handle more than one document.

Frustrated. High-paying order popped up so I snagged it, then called the restaurant to make sure it was a valid order. Start driving and it is evident the app is taking me to a residential neighborhood. I pull over and look it up and sure enough the actual restaurant is 10 miles away. Refresh the screen; still wrong. I call support. They will "make a note of the issue" and I had the agent confirm I will still be able to pick up the order even though it is going to show I am far away. "Of course, no problem". I head that way and after getting halfway there the order shows canceled BY ME. I calm support again, and that agent can see it was not canceled by me but because they reassigned a driver since I was "too far away". This agent tells me he will take the cancellation off but that's all he can do. 20 minutes wasted and for the moment the cancellation is still there. Also the first agent wrote down the restaurant was at fault for a wrong address. I had to make the 2nd agent understand the address was correct but the App GPS was wrong.

My guy enjoys ribbing me for the way I pronounce certain words. I'm from the South (so is he) but not a deep accent.

Talk Walk Chalk - like tok wok chock? I feel I am saying it more like the L is almost pronounced. We looked it up and the "ok" sound is even with /tɑːk/ (tawk). He believes he is saying "tok" even though I hear his version closer to my own. Though I do feel my tongue push to the roof of my mouth for the L.

Any other "lk" words to compare? I guess Polk is more like poke?