Hotel Den Wolsack Mechelen

... wind dies down, honestly! We have six hours to wait in Heathrow, where we will buy stuff that's either cheaper or more familiar than stuff in Brussels, we will eat something (farewell weight watchers, knew my trousers wouldn't be baggy for long..), probably take the mickey out of English travellers in their football shirts and sit in the lounge and write on the blog.<br><br>Very excited about going to Thailand!!

... ve spent a lot of time biking around town and it was great to see so many others doing the same. <br><br>Our first couple of days we really enjoyed biking through the large town square called Grote Market. Then the Carnies rolled in! The next 2 weeks every time we biked past the square we heard "can we go to the carnival?". We did give in one day and the kids had a great time choosing some rides to go on ...

... of musicians when I tell them I am a doctor--usually, something along the lines of "Are you for real?"  Likewise, when I tell other doctors about the music I am recording..."What do you mean, beatboxing?""He makes drum beats with his mouth.""Come again?""He's an acapella percussionist.""Interesting."  [doctor-speak for, "Is this guy for real?"]When we got to Fatty K's apartment we ate sausage and french fries in a sauce called Joppie sauce.  Quite tasty.  Like a curry ...

... Belge de la Blande Dessinee - The Comic Strip museum. Belgians are famous for comics including Tintin, Lucky Luke and The Smurfs. The museum was pretty good, although it would be enjoyed more by comic buffs - and people who can read Dutch or French. It was now time to meet the group and head back to Mechelen. It had drizzled pretty much all day. We went to the laundromat before tea &amp; after tea we packed up then relaxed in the dining room for our last night on board.

... cafe for a Beer Seminar and tasting. It was good and we had three beers to taste - one light flavour, one sweet &amp; one bitter. They were all nice and different. Day 6 - Mechelen We left Antwerp on our bikes at 9:15 in the rain. We all had our rain jackets and ponchos on. Unfortunately it kept raining all day! The rain jacket I bought in London was next to useless, so the plastic poncho was my only protection, even so i got soaked through ...

... as the river was a dump place and smelled awful. In time, this changed. The river got some attention after being somewhat cleaned and people changed place to their back yards to face the river and not the road inland. During our boat ride we saw just that. People sitting on their balconies or yards that were built to face the river. There are also some "streets", steps really that lead to the river, that are saved from older times, when people used it to get water from the ...

... my anticipation, and so ending an adventure before it could start, I actually did stumble a bit but carried on like the true rail warrior I was going to become. We settled into seats 27 and 28 of carriage #17 (2nd class - in name only), had a celebratory toast of New Zealand sauvignon blanc (tart and fruity, like I like it), and soon the English countryside was zipping ...

... m really not a first row person! It's only later that I let myself go when a nice girl invited me, and luckely it was a kind of crowd dance gigue so I didn't have to be noticed! It was nice and i let it go. After the pause and several drinks later I did dance some more crowd gigue but none of the 'personnal' dance, sadly for me one of the interesting girl invited me for a dance later but it revealed to be a crowded dance and after 30 seconds I lost her contact to another ...

... of Brussels for taking care of his son. 3. There used to be a witch's house on the corner and one day she caught a little boy relieving himself on the side of her house. She cursed him to stand there forever peeing, but a local wizard managed to break the curse by putting a statue of the boy there instead. Chose whichever one takes your fancy. Then we walked down 'Chocolate Street' (it's not actually called this - but it's filled with chocolate shops and everyone knows ...

... was much larger than the one in LaRoche. It dated originally from medieval times but had also been added onto over the years and was even used by the allied military in WWII. Boullion also has several "artisanal" chocolate shops and "artisanal" pastry shops. Fruit pastries are a specialty of this region and Melanie found plum tarts like her Grandmother Bernhardt is reputed to have made. So, lunch this day was very healthy. We each had: an apple, 1.5 ...