The Concert Was Canceled. The Trip Was Still Wonderful: Five Days in Zurich and Brussels

Five days in June: Zurich and Brussels.

Some trips start with a destination. This one started with a date on a tour poster: Linkin Park, From Zero World Tour, Bern. We built five days in Switzerland and Belgium around that one night. Then, about four hours before the doors opened, the show was canceled because of a medical issue in the band.

Here's the thing: the trip was still wonderful. Because we hadn't planned five days around a concert. We'd planned five days that happened to include one. That difference is the most useful thing I can share from this journey.

The route at a glance

• Day 1: Overnight flight to Zurich.

• Day 2: Zurich old town, the Lindt Home of Chocolate, raclette and gelato.

• Day 3: Rhine Falls and Stein am Rhein. (The Bern concert was meant to be that evening.)

• Day 4: A short flight to Brussels and an evening on the Grand Place.

• Day 5: A private tour of Brussels, then home the next morning.

Zurich: beautiful, clean, cultured and calm

Zurich is amazing. It's beautiful, it's clean, it's cultured, and the food is incredible. If you've only thought of it as a banking city, think again.

We landed mid-morning, and a driver met us at arrivals and took us straight to the Zurich Marriott. I'll be honest: the hotel was perfectly adequate, but nothing special. The surprise was its Thai restaurant, White Elephant, which was fabulous. And after the overnight flight, that first view across Zurich's rooftops to the hills was the reset we needed.

That afternoon we took a private tour of the city. The old town is all cobbled lanes, shuttered windows and café tables, watched over by the clock tower of St. Peter's Church, whose enormous clock faces are among the largest on any church in Europe. The tour ended at the Lindt Home of Chocolate, just outside the city, which is exactly as indulgent as it sounds.

Our first night we had raclette at Alders, on a cobblestone street in the old town, along with a platter of Swiss air-dried beef, cured ham and salami with cornichons and pickled onions. Just down the road is Dieci Gelateria & Take Away, and their gelato was probably the best I have ever had.

But the best part of Zurich was simply walking. We'd set out from the hotel into streets that were lively with people, and yet there was no honking, no sirens, no sound of calamity. Just a mellow, lovely hum. It's the kind of calm you don't realize you've been missing until you're standing in the middle of it.

Concert day: Rhine Falls, Stein am Rhein, and a change of plans

The day started early with a private tour north to Rhine Falls, the largest waterfall in Europe by volume, and on to Stein am Rhein, a medieval town on the river whose houses are covered in painted frescoes. The Rhine there is impossibly clear and green, and the whole town looks like a storybook.

We were back in Zurich, with a driver booked to take us to BERNEXPO for the show, when the news came through: the concert was off. Tens of thousands of fans were disappointed, and so were we. But we had already spent the day at one of Europe's great waterfalls and in one of Switzerland's prettiest towns, and we still had Brussels ahead of us. The trip didn't fall apart, because it had never rested on one night.

Brussels: the Grand Place and a city on foot

The next morning we took a short flight to Brussels and checked in to the Hilton Brussels Grand Place, an easy walk from the city's historic heart. We spent the afternoon wandering, and the Grand Place stopped us in our tracks. The gilded guildhalls and the Gothic town hall are breathtaking at any hour, but at dusk, as the light turns gold, it is one of the most beautiful squares in Europe.

Walking around Brussels was magical. Up each and every street there were people walking, laughing and eating, just enjoying being outside in the summer. There was music and joy and the most incredible sights.

I'm always amazed at buildings that have stood the test of time, and trips like this always leave me wondering about life there over the centuries, in those buildings and rooms.

On our last full day we had a private tour of Brussels: the cobbled lanes, the café-lined streets and, of course, the Manneken Pis, much smaller than you expect and decorated with fresh flowers when we saw him. One of our favorite meals was the simplest: steaming bowls of pho on a gray afternoon, proof that Brussels is far more international than its waffles suggest.

How to plan a trip around an event, so it survives without it

• Give every day its own reason. The concert was the spark, but Zurich itself, Rhine Falls, Stein am Rhein and Brussels were worth the trip on their own.

• Stay in the nearest great city, not the venue town. Zurich gave us better dining and day trips, whether or not the show went on.

• Use a private driver. On show night it means no crush leaving the venue. When plans change, it means one call instead of a pile of canceled train tickets.

• Insure the trip. Concerts get canceled. Read your ticket's refund terms and consider travel insurance before you book flights and hotels around a single event.

• Add a second country. Europe's short flights make it easy. A quick hop took us from Zurich to Brussels and a completely different city.

Good to know

• Walk Zurich in the evening. Leave time to wander out from your hotel after dinner. The streets are lively, safe and wonderfully calm.

• Don't skip the hotel restaurant. Our hotel was ordinary, but its Thai restaurant, White Elephant, was one of the best meals of the trip.

• Save room for gelato. Raclette at Alders, then a short walk to Dieci for dessert, is a perfect first night in Zurich.

• Fly home from Brussels instead of Zurich to save backtracking. Booking it as one open-jaw ticket keeps it simple.

• Switzerland uses Swiss francs; Belgium uses euros. Cards are accepted almost everywhere in both.

• See the Grand Place twice: once by day for the detail, once at dusk for the light.

• Wear comfortable shoes. Both old towns are cobblestone from end to end.

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Have a show, a match or a festival on your list? Touchpoint Travel can build a trip around it that's worth taking no matter what happens on the night, from the hotel and the drivers to the days before and after. Start planning your trip.