Alfa Empire Hotel Antwerp

... short amount of time, I know…but it was so good). Luckily, I bought more. Even luckier, I discovered the store that I bought the chocolates from also has a location in Versailles. Actually, that may or may not be a good thing.

My next major trip is going to be a grand tour of central Europe for our fall sketch/travel break. If anyone has recommendations for Berlin, Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, Budapest, or Prague, let me know!

... in-a-lifetime experience'.

Zoals jullie wellicht weten, leggen we de volledige afstand per openbaar vervoer af. Enkel voor de terugreis zullen we beroep doen op een vliegtuig. We hopen hierdoor een geleidelijkere overgang te maken tussen de verschillende culturen en een vollediger beeld te bekomen van het leven langsheen de moderne levensaders van de wereld. Zo passeren we langs enkele van 's werelds meest desolate plekken, maar ook vervoegen we de massa in ...

We arrived in Antwerp, Belgium today early around 4 am. Antwerp is located in what is known as Flanders, in the northern part of Belgium. It is a fairly large city, around 500,000 inhabitants and is the second largest city in the country. We are on the River Scheldt, which provides access to the Port of Antwerp, which is Europe's 2nd largest port. This morning we went on a walking tour of Antwerp. Antwerp's Grote Markt is a tribute to ...

... course). How lucky can you get that your 2 best friends get married? I am going to bore you with 2 stories. I also told them at the wedding. Michael , I know for more than 10 year. When my mum was sick, 6 years ago, I was in a training course in Luxemburg. Michael called me every evening, to ask how my mum was. She was not well. One evening, I arrived in the hotel to ...

A lovely holiday started with a terrible experience because of the transportation. We have chosen Eurolines form Antwerp to Paris, just because of the prize (around EUR 60 for a round trip), but it turned into a very exhausting adventure. After more than tree hours of drive, we were still in Belgium. Around 1PM we arrived in Paris.

... waffles, chocolate flavoured beer, and french fries with mussels, but those are the only combo's I know so far. Question for you. How many ways are there to serve mussels, and how much do you think they are worth, because there seems to be an argument about that last point at the millions of restaurants serving them around the main square?!! I've been told to try all 5, but only 1 down so far. Waffles rock!!! Pancakes are obsolete compared to them, and crepes ...

We arrived in Brussels late last night after jerking around with the trains. We couldn't catch the express because it was full, so instead of the journey taking 2 hours it was about 6 instead. We got to our hostel and they said they were full and that everywhere else was also full. We had to walk the street at 1am in the morning hoping to ...

... They actually drove us to the train station this morning and let us use their laptops. Last night they had a huge celebration at the local hangout and we hung out there talking to the locals and drinking trappist (monk) beer. This stuff is so good but it will knock you flat. They are all between 8 and 11% alcohol and 6 of those will put you on your ass. But it was very fun. This morning we left for ...

... the best of Belgium thusfar (beer and chocolate). Now it was time to get serious with some dinner. We were given a suggestion by the lady at Oude Arsenaal - Restaurant Otero. And it was a wonderful suggestion. We entered the small restaurant with about 10 tables. We were greeted by a really nice man who spoke wonderful English. He gave us our menus and apologized for not having English menus but promised to translate anything we needed. As we settled in and began ordering ...

... a particular beer that day. He could see that Melanie was very curious about seeing the process, so he bent the rules and gave us a quick tour. In all the tours we've been on, this is the first one during which brewing (creation of the wort) has actually been taking place. Cleanliness is paramount to quality beer, so in general a brewery would not give tours while anything is open -- for fear of contamination. We got to see the brewing tank in ...