Blogs from Antwerp Province, Belgium, Europe - page 7

Wednesday, June 22, 2011 First, Happy Birthday to our youngest daughter! Have a wonderful day celebrating! While I was up and about early, Jean was sure that she should sleep until noon - or at least sleep until she was sure she could sleep no more. By 8am I think I "guilt-ed" her into thinking she should be up - as I was up, bed made, breakfast eaten, showered and dressed! We began our day heading back to the bike shop we had found, only to be told that no, they did not rent bikes. The young man sent us to the Central train station. Here we found bikes for rent (red bikes) that are checked in and out of parking stations through out town, set up like a borrowing short commuter stations. They are set ... read more

Hi !! Belgian TV showed this evening a report about Bart... A 23 yo guy who died last December after a battle of 7 years against cancer. Once Bart knew that he could not recover from the cancer he started up with his brother an organisation which has to aim to convince people to be more happier about their lifes. People should be happy about the things they have. Bart chose to have himself sedated on the day that he felt that he could not live with the pain anymore... It was a very emotional report on TV... So why am I telling this? Very simple : Bart's final words ( "Enjoy life and be happy about the things you have and don't be sad/upset about what you not have") at the end of the report ... read more

Took the double decker train to Etten-Leur where I met Linda and her boyfriend Erwin. Linda is a good friend of my exchange student and both were really lovely people! They organised a day out for me in Antwerp, Belgium to visit the weird and wonderful museum that is Verbeke Foundation. As we crossed the boarder from the Netherlands to Begium, the roads got bumpier. The surrounding grounds of the museum looked like a dump site and the building itself was a freezing cold warehouse with an overgrown green house. The gerenal theme was to bring nature and ecology together. The exhibition had a large collection of dead animal installations, stuffed, rotting and other half carcasses hanging and stretched out to create a somewhat disturbing installation. Some works were inspired and copies of Damien Hurst's pieces, ... read more

this is written on the InterCity (IC) train from Anwerpen/Anvers to Amsterdam after I jumped on (just) at 3pm - having jumped off in Antwerpen/Anvers (so that is where the liqueur comes from - had one in Brugge - like yellow Chartreuse). Anyway headed off form the hotel Pantone, grabbed some pastires and yoghurt drink from the corner store just by the Hotel des Monnaies metro - unlike yesterday Sunday they had virtually run out of pastry things but got a couple of their last. All set for a little less than 3E - after the usual massive dinners I have been having the idea of payng the Pantone 15E for breakfast was quite ridiculous so def. did not take them up on it. The train was at 11.18 so notionally had enought time - but ... read more

Episode 3: Paris and Belgium Thursday September 2 , 2010 (by Craig) Hello everyone. I hope all is well in your neck of the woods. Thanks to all who left comments (Rodd, Leon; Colin et al). We left the Loire Valley last week and headed by train to Paris. Before leaving, we spent half a day at two of the nearby chateaux (medieval French castles/palaces). Chateau Villandry was amazing, primarily for its magnificent manicured gardens, which looked like a huge patchwork quilt of colours. The best gardens Ive ever seen anywhere (Google Image: Villandry). The whole of Loire Valley is world heritqge listed ; if you come to Paris, be sure to go south by 2 hours to see the chataux here. We spent a weekend in Paris. We had seen all the major sites in ... read more