Blogs from Walloon Brabant, Belgium, Europe

Povodne som chcel vstavat uz o 6.30 ale nakonec som sa vykopal o hodinu neskor. Spolubyvajuci hovoril len po zabozrutsky tak zadna konverzacia. Bufetove prezieranie a nabalenie niecoho na dnesny den (2xmandarinka, 2xjablcko, 2x vajco na tvrdo) Vonku nahovno pocasi, hmla. Nakonec som ten najvacsi trh v belgicku len odfotil z mosta. Ono okolo 8.45 sa ludia len rozkladali a nic extra tu vidiet nebolo. Proste oblecenie a jedlo. Zadna exotika. Listok na stanici kupeny v pohode v automate len som sa musel opytat zamestnanca odkial mi to ide. Vlak ic, tak cisty a pohodlne sedacky. Bohuzial po dorazeny do namuru hmla moc neustupila. Po opusteny stanice hned dolava kde je info centrum. Samozrejme v nedelu zavrete. Nuz idem teda len tak po ulickach, ktore sa vobec nelisia od predchodzich miest. Zas volaky kostol, divadlo, vystavba ... read more

This morning I took a walk around the old city centre of Lille. I stopped at a bakery for a breakfast of hot chocolate and croissant. Later, I got myself a cafe-au-lait. I was feeling very French! Lille has a pretty downtown and I particularly liked the square in front of the opera (see picture). I checked out of the hotel and, on my way out of town, I stopped in at La Piscine, an art museum that is housed in an old swimming facility. I guess they figure that if Paris can put an art museum in an old train station, then Lille can put one in an old swimming pool. I was pleasantly surprised by the art work there and the watery environment added to the uniqueness of it all (see picture). From ... read more

We had a 3 a.m. wakeup call and were out the door by 4m. Off to the airport for Brussels. We arrived in Brussels on time and a travel hint here: I did a little research and found that regional airlines were much cheaper but with lots of bad reviews. I checked with our friends who said that if we followed their rules we’d be fine. I found info on all of the regional airlines and then checked each out, deciding that we would fly on Ryanair. If you want to travel between countries I’d highly recommend checking out the regional. Read the details and all rules. I found that our carry one were just a little too big by using a sewing tape with both cm and in. By reading all the rules we flew, ... read more

We were sent on our way early Tuesday morning last week by none other than David Cameron and arrived in Waterloo on Thursday evening – received by the British Ambassador – with plenty of pomp and ceremony along the way. It was a real challenge – and by lunchtime on day 1 I had cycled further than ever before in one go (40 miles)! The total distance I covered over the 3 days was 255 miles. An average of 85 miles per day and overall average speed of around 14mph. 18 hours were spent in the saddle (and don’t I know it). My top speed was 39.4 mph (down a very steep hill in Kent). I had 3 punctures on day 1, 1 on day 2, and was incident free from then on. I fell off ... read more

26/12/2012 Today was the final carre, and was also the day I planned to give out a lot of my old clothes I either no longer wore, no longer wanted, or could not longer fit into my suitcase. Arriving at the carre, I threw all the t-shirts around, and people replaced their t-shirts with the ones I threw, which was pretty funny to see. The afternoon ended up pretty danm good, and we partied ‘till quite late as this was really the last time we’d ever do it like this. I’m definitely gonna miss the carre. No wonder it’s renowned world over by exchange students. 27/12/2012 FINALLY ! always wanted to patinage (ice skate), And during the winter season, there’s temporary rinks set up all over town, even in Verviers. But today we were going to ... read more