http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Belgium en-us Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:01:01 BST Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:01:01 BST On Wednesday 11 June 2008 we sailed to Hook of Holland from Killingholme.We were invited by the Captain on to the bridge whilst we sailed down the River Humber. On the Thursday morning after breakfast onboard we drove down through Holland into Belgium and onto Antwerp. Our Sat Nav got us there but didn't know where we had to park so we went round the block twice In the end Richard had to pa http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Antwerp-Province/Antwerp/blog-302811.html hi guys its us again speaking to you from paris. you may be confused. so were we. well like trav and jas we forgot our dour tickets and travs interailing pass in france. dour was amazing espically ice cube for us and the mass amount of drum and bass. well i kinda realised i wasnt really a camping person espically after seeing the toilets. arrrgghhh it was a nightmare. the weather the ok rain http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/blog-302690.html Oh my goshI was on Brussels 88.8 FM Radio for a LIVE interview yesterday I had just barely made it into the town center after getting off the train from Bruges checking in at the youth hostel and walking into the very fun UseItTourist Office for Young Travellers. There was a party going on in there or at least the four people inside were super jovial and had apparently JUST moved their http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Brussels-Capital-Region/Brussels/blog-302272.html I have been in Belgium now for four days and tomorrow leave for Den Haag The Hague Netherlands tomorrow. Seems only befitting that I will be out of the country on THEIR national holiday like I did for France was in Lux returned to Lille FR the dayafter. Belgium is truly bilingual and I've got neither French nor Flemish AKA Dutch for the most part with a national twist. But this is hig http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Brussels-Capital-Region/Brussels/blog-302104.html Finally we have an opportunity to sit down for a few moments to let everyone know how our trip is going...things have been a bit crazy because we have only been staying in each new location for 2 or 3 days and therefore we spend most of our time siteseeing rather than sitting in a cafe. However we just arrived in Amsterdam yesterday and already you can smell the weed all around town...we haven't http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/West-Flanders/Brugge/blog-301942.html De ciudad en ciudad de pas en pas las vacaciones se venan transformando en una mquina de gastar energa. Por supuesto que usando una famosa frase argentina sarna con gusto no pica o calavera no chilla. Pero un da de relax no viene para nada mal.Y dado que nos gustan mucho los juegos de agua decidimos pasar un da en el Oceade de Bruselas. Se trata de un bonito parque acutico situad http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Brussels-Capital-Region/Brussels/blog-301900.html Brujas la Venecia del Norte es una ciudad amable que conserva un rico legado de los tiempos ya lejanos en los que fue metrpoli potente con un podero econmico que se vino abajo cuando perdi su cualidad portuaria. Ese fue nuestro destino siguiente.Hoy Brujas tiene una vida apacible. La belleza de sus casas el encanto de sus canales el orgullo de sus viejos edificios hace de la urbe un d http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/West-Flanders/Brugge/blog-301898.html Nuestro prximo destino fue Bruselas la capital de Blgica y el centro administrativo de la Unin Europea. Es considerada la capital de la Unin Europea con lo que eso implica mucha gente de distintos pases conviviendo... y mucho trfico Venamos de pueblitos pequeos de cuentos cuando entramos en el caos vehicular de Bruselas. Por momentos pensamos en ir a buscar otra ciudad pero con un po http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Brussels-Capital-Region/Brussels/blog-301895.html BelgiumhellipagainSo back to Belgium we headed Somehowhellipwe ended up in a town on the border of Holland and Belgium where we couldnrsquot get another train to Tongerenhellipso we called the Belgian Brass guys and they brought a couple of cars to pick us up. It was a gorgeous dayhellipso we all sat down at an outdoor caf and enjoyed some coffee. Yeshellipthere is a trend. Ca http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/blog-301023.html Tongeren Belgium July 7 8Leaving Corfu was sad. We had such a wonderful time in the warm weather by the ocean. We were a bit surprised to land in Amsterdam where it was over 20 degrees Celsius cooler We were picked up by Alexanderhellipa great guy who is studying piano and percussion and whose father was the head of one of the two festivals hosting us and the organist for Jeffrsquos co http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/blog-301006.html Bonjour tout le mondeJ'ai pas donn de nouvelles depuis longtemps car je suis pas mal occupe au travail. La ville de Gand tait trs belle. Maintenant je suis Vellereille l'abbaye de BonneEsprance. La premire priode du camp est finie. Les jeunes sont partis hier et les nouveaux arrivent demain. J'ai beaucoup aim la premire priode. J'avais une classe de niveau 2B 12 lves semidb http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Hainaut/Charleroi/blog-299941.html Thursday 8 May 2008It was great to be back with Valerie in Genval. We had only spent a short time with them a couple of weeks prior and so we were very excited to return.While the kids were at school Valerie took us to another of her favourite places which very quickly became one of ours too the Folon Foundation Museum. Wow JeanMichel Folon was a local artist who mostly specialised in water http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/blog-299378.html Ok now that I'm in Munich I have some time to get this entry done finally. I'm kinda falling behind here a bit because I've been on the move pretty much constantly for the past week or so. Promise I'll get the Amsterdam and Berlin entries done soon.As for Bruges it's a beautiful city that is stuck in the middle ages as far as appearances. Pretty much all of the buildings in the city are very old http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/West-Flanders/Bruges/blog-299219.html Sunday 4 May 2008After a notsoearly start due to some mild hangovers we checked out of the Sheraton Four Points in Brussels and caught the train back south this time to the French university town of LouvainlaNeuve. There we were greeted at the railway station by the very charismatic Jacques Michael's family friend from his old Belgium days.Jacques took us back to their ultra funky apartm http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/blog-298273.html Back to BelgiumStill under the rain I just love summers don t you Doing my last things here preparing the trip writing mails... and can t wait to leave D 3 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Brussels-Capital-Region/Brussels/blog-298041.html Saturday..We went to the Van Gogh museum earlier in the morning. The museum is a smaller museum but it contained a lot of information about Van Gogh. It was interesting to read about his life I learned many things about he I did not previously know. I was a little disappointed that many of favorite pieces he has done were not there. Although I have a new favorite Blossoming Almond Tree. It wa http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Brussels-Capital-Region/blog-297964.html We facebooked a couple people parker's french sister and janna. our friend from the american bar the previous night. French sister was off in germany and unable to help. Janna generously opened her home. She is living in paris for the summer while she does biochemical chemistry something about yeast. She stayed in our hostel one night after some difficulties with mother. Luckily for us she http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/West-Flanders/Brugge/blog-297922.html I am getting in a writing frenzy again. Been writing untill 3AM a few days ago and I just felt like writing again as I logged in on this site because I was curious to see if anyone had still been viewing it in the last few months. And yes people stumble upon my blog when looking for information about places they are going to. The entry about the Annapurna trekking is the most popular one. Just a http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Brussels-Capital-Region/blog-297662.html Happy late Fourth of July I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend and got to see beautiful fireworks because I didn't . I'm sure you are wondering what I did for the holiday because I know the title does not give it away I went to England London to be exact. I had to get up super early on Friday morning to get to the train station at 630 in the morning I didn't expect to go through bo http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Brussels-Capital-Region/Brussels/blog-297130.html scroll down for English... or learn French D texts are different anyway I get lazy doing nothing p And it is mostly copypaste anywayMais commencons par la blague belge du jourUne famille de euh.... bref devant les bisons oh maman t'as vu les mammouths au moins 15 ans d'age physique la filledevant les chiens de prairie oh des castors Donc enfin je suis allee voir ce parc tant co http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Hainaut/blog-296925.html Yeah itrsquos a nice day at last so we set off for a bike ride through the wonderful old streets of Brugges. Itrsquos a great way to see the town but riding on cobbled streets through pedestrians and traffic is a challenge though. Wersquove loved every minute of Europe but wersquore looking forward to being able to speak to some one in Englishhellipanyone even a shopkeeper. Wersquov http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/West-Flanders/Brugge/blog-296597.html Thought wersquod detour past the beaches of Dunkirk to pay respect to the many lives lost in the battles. What was here was obviously destroyed in the wars and quickly rebuilt in the fifties. Now days itrsquos a holiday town thatrsquos stuck in a 50rsquos time warp though itrsquos a dreary place for a holiday now. And the windhelliptrying to make lunch from the boot of the car in gal http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/West-Flanders/Brugge/blog-296594.html AllWhat is up Well I am writing this from the Hotel Lybeer in beautiful not as quaint as I thought Brugges Belgium. I would imagine most people stateside have not heard of it and I didn't before my travels either. Upon reading about Europe this fall I stumbled across it over and over and it was described as a hidden gem of northern Europe. So far I would say it was worth stopping by. Th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/West-Flanders/Brugge/blog-296361.html Friday 2nd May 2008We arrived on the bus from Amsterdam and followed the directions to the Sheraton at the south of Brussels where we were to stay for the duration of Alex Damien's wedding. We had a little bit of trouble finding it because we didn't spot the big FOUR POINT THIS WAY sign on the other side of the road Michael asked inside the Michael Collins pub instead.Wow LUXURY The rooms w http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/blog-296343.html Just the first entry to test and begin the blog http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/Brussels-Capital-Region/Brussels/blog-296162.html Here is how our decision was made to go to Brugge....Friend from hostel in Amsterdam Hey where are you girls going nextKim Katie We're not sure but we were thinking about going to BrusselsFriend You should go to Brugge insteadKim Katie OkSo yea it was a pretty random plan. We literally packed up our stuff in Amsterdam and headed to the train station to buy a oneway ticket t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Belgium/West-Flanders/Brugge/blog-296044.html