It really isn't an adventure, it's catching one train and changing onto another.
I've done the trip twice - once was entirely uneventful, the other the Cologne-Brussels DB train was late but I had no problem getting my ticket endorsed for the Thalys (free of charge). In the end I think both arrived in Brussels at the same time, with reasonably time to catch the Eurostar.
Agreed. Train travel has become so denormilised. With stupid yield management pricing, it's become even worse. Miss the correct train, and you're lumbered with extra pricing.
I haven't flown since 2005, and have managed to get from the UK to Crete, to Lithuania, to Barcelona. The issues described above such as the winds closing lines etc... Air travel is no better (see Gatwick Drone issues), and with rail travel there are usually reroute options that aren't available when flying. On one trip from Koln to the UK, there were strikes for DB, so they put us on a bus to Brussels. We made out connection just fine. This doesn't tend to happen for air travel.
Ferry's and driving, can be simpler, but you're still at the mercy of P&O/DFDS/Eurotunnel, you only need a French strike, or winds in the channel, and you're stuck on the M20... At least with rail travel once you start your journey, they are legally required to get you to your destination (hint, carry a copy of the international conditions of carriage in both English and the local languages).
Train travel shouldn't be an adventure, it should be normal, and common. It should have transparent pricing, and sensible conditions. Unfortunately too many train companies think that what we want from travel is the airport experience. You see this with the likes of Eurostar, and Thalys. What people actually want is to get from a to b, affordably, comfortably, and without faff. I don't want to have to arrive an hour before hand, I don't want to have to book 3 months in advance, and I don't want to have to be confined to a single journey or suffer a large financial penalty. Alas, this quixotic view is not shared by the powers at be
When I first moved to .NL I suffered massive geographic compression. In Canterbury the departure board lists Ramsgate, Margate, and London. Even in the likes of Kings Cross, the number of destinations is limited. Yet, you walk into Utrecht centraal, and a long side the departures for Maastricht, and Rotterdam, and Den Helder, there's also the train to Moscow, and Prague, and Frankfurt, and Zurich, and occasionally Paris. Travelling by train you can walk in, and buy a ticket from the machine and just get on any of these trains (tho it's quite expensive if you don't book in advance). If they could fix the pricing, this is how rail travel should be. It would also help if they brought back the night trains. If we are going to reduce the amount of short haul air travel, we're gonna need to do so.
Sorry, that became quite a rant... Take the train, you'll enjoy it more.
J