Express By Holiday Inn Mechelen

Every two years, the weather man declared, there are strong gales in the south of England, the type that disrupt train services, housewives lose their laundry drying on the line, umbrellas get blown inside out - and even trees are blown down. This was the day that we chose to fly to England. It's OK, the gales will die down sometime in the afternoon, said the same weather man, but not after we've flown over to ...

Well the chocolate, waffles, and beer in Belgium have not disappointed us! Neither has Belgium for that matter. We stayed in a beautiful city called Mechelen (between Brussels and Antwerp). We exchanged with a younger (sorry guys) couple for their 2 bedroom apartment in the heart of the city. It was a nice change for us after years of suburban life and showed us the draw of living downtown. Mechelen has so ...

On New Year's Day I flew from Portland, OR, to Frankfurt, Germany.  I think its at least possible that the low cost of this plane ticket (<$500) was related to the 8 hour layover in the Frankfurt Airport.  Saw plenty of folks who appeared to be in the same situation, lying lengthwise across three chairs at their respective gates, sleeping more comfortably than is possible in an economy class plane seat.  Thus I put in my earplugs and followed their example (using my locked ...

... but my socks and shoes were drenched as the rain just ran into them. After riding a quick 53km we arrived in Mechelen at 1:30. We rode really fast and beat the boat, it got in at 4:15. We walked around the lovely town, saw the church and went to a pub for Belgiam beer before a nice hot shower on the boat. 6th June - Mechelen - Bike Tour Today we had a free day in Brussels. After breakfast we all took the 25 min train to Brussels where we had 5 hours to explore. We ...

... in Geertruidenberg at 10:00. The barge had to go through a loch to get there. We then started on the 55km ride to Willemstad. There are 20 people on the tour but due to the length and cloudy weather only 14 rode today. This meant that our speed was much faster and we arrived at the arge in Willemstad at 4:00. We had another city walk after tea to see the sights of the pictoresque town including the very large windmill. Day 5- Antwerp We left ...

... little stroll in the square that was full of kiosks as there was a big open market with clothes, food, fruits etc. We then changed clothes at the hotel and hopped on the boat that the happy couple had booked for their guests, that took us on an one hour boat ride down the river. It's funny because the river had numerous bridges to connect the two banks, but they are all so short that I never expected the boat to actually go under them. I saw them coming towards us and thought ...

At approximately 11:15 on Friday, 10th August 2007, the front door was pulled shut. The key was turned locking the deadbolt tight, then yippie yiyo, we were on our way. This was well and truly the start of our journey. Rounding the corner of Grendon Gardens we made the 5 minute trek to the Wembley Park Underground station on our way to Waterloo Station, the London ...

October 25 We arrived to Achim somewhat on time to leave with him the the room of the 'Boom Bal'I was still expecting that it was a traditionnal folk concert but I learned in the train that it was a dance hall, so to go to dance and learn to dance folk... waahh I was stuck now to fight my public appearance fear. So we walked there as it was nearby Achim's home in Etterbeek and we paid the entrance fee, took some beers and talked to some people that Achim knew since he goes ...

... signs for Mannekin Pis and figured that would be a good place to start. I've heard that this statue is highly overrated but I didn't realise just how much. We knew we were there because of the crowd of people hanging around but it took us a while to find the little guy... he's only about 30cm tall! I knew he was small but I was expecting at least 60cm. So there are various lengends about how he came to be, including: 1. Once upon a time a nobleman called a priest to town ...

... the Bulge that was among an outdoor market in LaRoche: On Friday, after Chris' tour of Rochefort, we drove to Boullion - another small town with an ancient fort and (we thought) 3 breweries. The drive was very pretty through the Ardennes forest. We were surprised, however, to see that the U.S. is not alone in clearcutting its forests. There were many places along the drive where clearcutting was very evident. In Boullion, we found one very small ...