Beer-aan-botje The story so far Some time ago now I knew I wanted to go off and do something again, first it was backpacking then a campervan and then I came full circle and settled on a child hood dream of a sailing boat. I started my search and the boat for me became less of a reality, as the more boats I saw the more features I wanted in the boat of my dreams one thing was certain, steel boats are a lot more common in Holland, So off I went in a cloud of smoke to the land of [View Full Entry]

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Just enough time for a shower before I go and meet my date, as with all ladies she is late, but soon she joins me in the bar and we go for a walk around the town, Romance bloomed. After a few more days on the road and a lot of boats looked at, That first boat of the road trip was still top of the list so I went back for both the boat and the girl. I did a deal and agreed the work I wanted done and spent the rest of my stay: you guessed it, with the [View Full Entry]

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we needed a break from the big cities. and gent was perfect. we were welcomed by lovely sisters jolien and cynthia. very friendly. perfect english. and of course they speak dutch and french as well. jolien showed us around her house, a lovely retro place. fleamarket finds in every nook. but tastefully put together. eclectic. i can see my place looking like this. she has an attic and a basement, a water closet. a BACKYARD. now that's a change from paris. her beautiful cats alain and dalida. a famous french duet sung by the two. alain currently purring my lap. he's [View Full Entry]

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Well we finally made our fist trip across the ditch to Europe. Yes a weekend in Brussels, Bruges and Antwerp and we are impressed. Our trip started on Friday morning 7am at St Pancras Station, where we boarded the Eurostar. It was a sharp contrast to airports, we arrive 30 minutes before departure not 3 hours, check in is relatively easy and with in 20 minutes you are sitting in the train ready to leave. The only hiccup was secrurity, who took my swiss army knife because it was considered dangerous in the present London climate (there is a knifing every [View Full Entry]

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We are now having a wonderful evening with the London cousins. Jennie met us and Josie and Sarah had cooked tea.The older girls are showered and out to meet 'locals'. Catriona is dying after last night's tough train trip so she's off to bed. I am enjoying the luxury of washing some kit out and getting it dried. We were so exhausted after the night Berlin - Bruxelles train that arrived at 6am! We visited the Grand Place and Mannekin Pis by 8am and then sat drinking coffee and reading until the Cinema opened and we could slink inside to sleep. [View Full Entry]

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Exactly a month of travelling, everything OK till the day before yesterday, a day curiously full of setbacks... I had peacefully pedalled for 74 flat Kms and I was only 22 Kms away from Gent, stage's final for that day. A puncture at the rear wheel, apparently nothing serious. I decide to push the bike up to a gas station where I could have changed the tyre without being then forced to inflate it manually. I took a few steps and the inner tube came totally out of the tyre, which in turn lost its natural place inside the metal rim [View Full Entry]

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G'day The first thing I noticed about Belgium, was that it is incredibly flat, the second thing was that were a few strange things about. This started as soon as we landed, after the rather normal straight forward landing, the entire plane burst into applause. But then maybe that was because we were flying Turkish Airlines? Philippe was there to greet us at Brussels airport, and whisked us away in his car to his home, just outside of Antwerp. Philippe had taken the week off work to tour us around Belgium and did a wonderful job of playing tour guide, navigator, [View Full Entry]

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De voorbereidingen voor mijn reisjes naar Japan kunnen starten. Het belangrijkste is reeds gebeurd en dat is het boeken van de vluchten. Binnen welgeteld 16 dagen zit ik voor de eerste keer op het vliegtuig naar Japan (van 8 augustus - 19 augustus). Twee maandjes later ga ik voor een tweede keer, maar dan voor een volle maand (25 oktober - 25 november). In augustus zijn we (Jerome en ik) van plan om naar het Noorden te reizen, wegens te warm in het centrum en zuiden van het land. Het schijnt daar nu boven de 35 graden te zijn, met een [View Full Entry]

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Bonjour tout le monde, Je sais, j'ai pas écrit depuis longtemps! Le dernier mois à Vellereille a été complètement fou! J'ai vécu deux périodes à Vellereille, c'est-à-dire que j'ai eu deux groupes de jeunes différents et que j'ai refait toutes les activités spéciales deux fois! Les ordis étaient horriblement lents ce qui explique que je n'ai pas donné beaucoup de nouvelles. J'ai passé un mois super à l'abbaye de Vellereille. L'équipe de travail et les enfants étaient géniaux. Les 3 premières semaines, il a fait froid et il a plu à tous les jours: c'était pas chouette. La dernière semaine [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday (30.7.) I got up to another hot, sunny morning (surprisingly no sore muscles despite the immense physical effort!), packed up my bags and loaded them onto my bicycle and headed for the train station. There I encountered my first problem of the day, when I couldn't print out my Eurostar ticket for some reason. Luckily I was allowed to board the train with just my email print-out of my reservation. My bike was loaded into the back of the train into a wee compartment to which only the conductor had the key. I thoroughly enjoyed the train ride (wow, someone/something [View Full Entry]

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