We plan on catching the fast train from Rotterdam to France. Can we depart the train in Lille as we want to pick up our rental car there.

Forget the fast train and take hourly IC InterCity trains from Rotterdam to Brussels - about an hour or so and then take locals to Lille. You could right the 'high speed' Thalys train Rotterdam to Brussels but currently it's marginally faster than the IC trains. When new high-speed tracks are opened sometime this year then you could be in Brussels a tad quicker.

But to take Thalys entails a Byzantine pricing structure where you could pay mucho bucks (or euros) more than on the almost as fast IC trains.

Just in Amsterdam ask at the station for an Amsterdam-Lille thru ticket on non-Thalys trains.

www.ns.nl for schedules (Dutch railways web site)

no reservations required on IC and local route - mandatory on Thalys. www.thalys.com

We've only taken the train from Lille to Amsterdam, not the other way. Lille has 2 train stations separated by a large shopping mall Euralille. You will arrive in the Lille Flandres station where the major auto rental companies are located. We returned our Hertz rental car there. The other station, Lille Europe is more for the local trains. Lille is great place to overnight and fun to explore. We've stayed at the Concorde hotel twice due to its strategic location.

With all due respect to DAX Lille Europe mainly only serves long-distance trains and Eurostars to London. TGVs run from there direct to southern and western France, going around Paris. Flandres is the old main train station for Lille, with TGVs to paris and local trains to many locales.

What Palenq wrote makes sense: "Europe" station for the European trains and "Flandres" station for the local trains. Sorry for the mix up. We also went to Amsterdam for family reasons. Rotterdam is not our favorite city but we did make a day trip just to see a few relatives there. I hope you're not staying there throughout your trip as it is the least charming.

OK, I'm really off today. I read your other posting earlier today and somehow thought that you'll be staying in Rotterdam. Glad you're staying elsewhere. I hope you'll report your impression of Apeldoorn after your trip. I've met some very nice people from there but have never been there.

Thanks Dax. We are staying mostly in Apeldoorn,but my cousin will drop us off in Rotterdam at the train station. Have to get to Lille as fast as possible as from there we pick up our euro lease car and drive to Brittany which is about 500 km. So a very long day that day.