We left our cozy French country home along with the warm weather and sunshine and headed to Ghent, Belgium. If we would have driven it would have taken about 2.5 hours of our life, however, we decided to return the car and use our eurail train passes.  The trip ended up taking over 6 hours! We returned the car and then took the metro from the airport to the train station.  The metro was PACKED full of people and we almost made it when it suddenly stopped.  The driver just said there was a problem and all of us were locked in on the metro.  This went on for about 45 minutes and to top it off Sienna was crying because she had to go to the bathroom!!!! AHHHHHHHHHH!!! I was seriously preparing for her to have an accident, looking around for something, anything for her to go in or a corner to hide in. THANKFULLY she was able to hold it and we slowly lurched into the station.  We had missed our connection Thalys train ( which by the way is the fast train and not cheap with regards to reservations! ).  We were able to catch the next train and luckily we weren’t charged any extra for our reservations. We grabbed some sandwiches and started walking towards our platform when we saw the longest line wrapping around the corner.  We soon found out that this was our line for security to get ON the train. This was a first for us. Mass confusion. I am kicking myself again wondering why we have the train pass…..It is WAY different from how it worked 10 years ago but I know that at least we can travel long distances easier with the kids.  We made it through the security line ( or lack there of ) and settled in.  Thalys trains treat you WELL, really well. The kids not compare every train to the Thayls train and ask if there will be food, candy, desserts, drinks, etc.  Sorry kids, not so much! We finally pulled into the Ghent station, grabbed a cab, and made it to our room at the Novotel Centrum.  The location is perfect although we were all in one room together.  We were exhausted, crabby, and hungry. We were looking for a place to eat and just kept pacing in circles. Mylan kept crying and saying he wanted pizza.  Luckily, we found this tucked away pizza restaurant and managed to get seats right in front of an open window over looking a canal.  The kids got to watch the boats go by and wave at the people and we got to finally have a beer and eat! THANK YOU Otomat Heavenly Pizza! ( PS this was also right by the castle ).