Carolus Mechelen

... UK!<br><br>Brussels airport is emptier than I have ever seen it in my life. There are no more than 10 flights for the rest of the day. Eric and I are alone in the airport lounge, save for a couple of elderly people and their miniature poodle, which is snacking on a croissant. <br><br>We are waiting for our flight - it is delayed by half an hour as I write this. That's just fine, in fact, it can be delayed until ...

... to offer from the Saturday market, parks, canals, shops, churches and the great cafes. Since we&#8217;ve been here we&#8217;ve realized that we rely on cars way more than Europeans. In Belgium there are bike lanes on every street and everyone rides their bike everywhere. At stores, museums etc. there are well used bike racks. Bikes have the right of way and cars are much more aware and cautious of bikers ...

... backpack with laptop, sound card, and mics as a pillow).   The flight to Brussels lasted less than an hour, compared to the 9+ hour transatlantic flight.  The beatboxer who I had come to record, Fatty K, picked me up at the airport with his girlfriend Jasmine and his friend "D."  On the drive to Mechelen, I realized I had forgotten to tell Fatty K what I did for a living (subsequent to my former albeit brief career as a studio session guitarist).  I am always amused by the ...

... by walking through Galeries Saint-Hubert. We then walked to the magnificant central square, Grand Place, and saw the splendid Gothic-style Hotel de Ville. Next we walked to the manneken Pis fountain, a little boy cheerfully taking a leak into a pool. We then walked up to Palais Royal before heading to Palais de Justice which was for many years the world's largest building. We then had some traditional fries &amp; mayounaise with beer. After that we went to the ...

... on our bikes at 9:00. The group rode pretty fast and we saw more of the same scenery - windmills, fields, farms, and animals. we had lunch about 40 minutes before the end in a small town. We reached Thole at about 2pm and boarded the barge. We set sail for Antwerp (and Belgium) and arrived at 6pm after going through the 4th biggest harbour in the world - it was massive and took about an hour to go through it. After tea we went to a ...

... myself "noooo, he's turning the boat, really why isn't he turning the boat, Gosh, it's off with our heads if he doesn't turn around NOW" but when I turned to our captain he shouted "achtung!" and we all ducked into the boat, almost grabbing our feet, and watched the bridge almost scrape the top side of our boat! The river is not exactly "crystal clear" but it has improved in time according to our guide. Back in the day, everybody who lived close to the river was thought to be ...

... of Eurostar (for another few months anyway). The start was absolutely uneventful (except for the stumble part in the next sentence), even normal like just going out to the shops, but it was momentous nonetheless...we were actually doing this, we were on our way to Hong Kong by train, and for me ultimately around the world. I was so worried about tripping and falling ...

... pretty often. Seems they only got interested in talking to us when they learned afterall that we were foreigner from 'interesting' country. Anyhow, the dance evening started quite suddenly and I wasn't too mad when I noticed that I could stay appart as I didn't have a matching partner. So I sticked to the back of the room sipping my drink and making sure nobody was noticing me... then sipping the drinks of Achim and Dylan, avoiding the looks of the other persons coming in ...

... try and cure his barren wife. 9 months later a little boy was born and promptly peed onto the priest's beard. They called a priestess in to do the baptism and the nobleman ran off with her, so the priest cursed the man and said 'Your son will never grow any taller and will never stop peeing.' 2. A nobleman (a different one) lost his son in a parade. When the son was found 5 days later he was peeing on the street corner and the nobleman had the statue made to thank the ...

... and learned that the other two had closed. The one that we found was really a beer store with a little brewing equipment in the back. It had the feel of somebody's home brew on steroids that they brought to work with them. The store itself was interesting because they had almost every beer made in Belgium - which is impressive when you consider that over 600 different beers. So, with no additional breweries to tour, we went to the fort. This ...