Blogs from East Flanders, Belgium, Europe - page 9

We made our way from Torquay to Dover which was quite a drive. I think it took about 5 hours. Our ferry wasnt until 4am the next morning so we stopped at a reststop and had a few hours sleep. Boarded the ferry which only took 90 mins to cross the English channel. Arrived in Calais, France then started driving towards Belgium. We stopped at a rest stop on the way for a bit of a sleep cos we were quite tired. When we woke up I realised that I had left the headlights on so the battery was dead flat. We managed to get a jump start from a tow truck which turned out quite costly. Once we were back on the road we headed to Ghent for the night. Stayed a quite a nice ... read more

I spent 5 nights in Gent this trip thanks to the unwaivering hospitality of my friend Kat (shes probably reading this so I have to be nice!) and her housemate Annalies. The first night I surprised Kat by producing a haggis brought all the way from Dundee (and hopefully surviving the sweltering temperatures of my cycle to Gent in the lower reaches of ma rear pannier unscathed). In the end the haggis was partially consumed but we have to wait till Saturday for that story. Thursday and Friday were both fairly lazy recovery days. Kat was working in the Bio-Shop (pronounced Beo not Bio) so I got a lovely staff discount lunch there both days of soup and a roll with unknown but tasty organic filling. On thursday afternoon I also met up with Daithi, a ... read more

Gent, so who has heard of it? It's not really on the radar of most Kiwis that I know. I mean over the last couple of months while Lindo and I have been preparing for our trip not once has anyone come up to us and gone "hey, you guys have GOT to go to Gent", unlike Venice, Rome, Paris, London, Berlin, Prague etcetera... All we knew was that Ross, who is Lindos brother, lives there, and we were going to stay at his house for a few nights. Anyway, we left Cologne and headed towards Belgium on Tuesday the 1st of April, catching the ICE high speed train. After a short bit of confusion where we thought the carriage we were in was comfortable and suiting our needs, I realised that we weren't in our ... read more

While staying in Brussels, Grace and I did a day trip to Ghent. Very similar to Burges only less touristy. ... read more

Hello again pleasant people poised on poetry prosed by the Postmodern penmanship of Mr. Pagan! haha, its always nice to start with alliteration humour.. So, as i write this im on about the 7th day of an intended two night sleepover at my first couchsurfing place, i just cant seem to leave! but more on that a little later. first things first, i think i left you all with a perhaps slightly negative vibe on my travels (as mum so passionately observed), but dont fret because young brave lachlan doesnt get sad or weary or disgruntled, he just gets deep is all.. artists thrive on that stuff dont they? haha.. so anyway, Biarritz in France ended up being a beautiful place, but another town filled with a slightly ageing population. Erin and I invited a young ... read more