Thalys has very limited (and very expensive) mandatory reservations for pass users. You could’ve tried, but the pass places would’ve probably sold out anyway. We always recommend to avoid Thalys with a pass, not worth the money. You can get fairly easy to Brussels via reservation free local trains if you miss the ICE. Hop on a RE to Aachen, change there for the stopper service to Spa-Géronstère, switch again at Welkenraedt and the IC to Brussels (and Oostende) rolls in a bit later. That takes about 3h from Cologne instead of +/- 2h with the ICE, but without the need to wait 2 hours :). It would look like this (on this year’s schedule) - next year’s might look a bit different. The connection is available every hour: Thank you. I am intending to travel without interail that day as it is cheaper as it stands. So getting to Cologne with NightJet on Interrail ticket and then a booked/seat reserved ICE to get to Brussel without Interrail.
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