Hotel Den Wolsack Mechelen

... where we got gooey, piping hot waffles from a van before continuing on to the gardens around the Palais Royale. There, my friends forced me to sit down for awhile, which isn’t a common thing on VanAcker vacations, but was a nice way to absorb the scenery. Our peaceful time was interrupted, however, by our shocking realization that stores might close early because it was Sunday…AND WE HAD NOT YET BOUGHT CHOCOLATE. All the time that we thought ...

... ve spent a lot of time biking around town and it was great to see so many others doing the same.

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 & 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 & 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 ...

... us about 4 hours to arrive in Paris, but we arrived without any problems. After arriving in Paris, I took the metro all the way back to Gare de Lyon and from there I took the train back to Dijon. Once I arrived back in Dijon, I went back to my dorm room at the International Student Residence Hall and began to unpack. Now my trip to Brussels was officially over, for now at least. What was next for me, was beyond me.

Click Here to see all the photos of our time in Brussels on our Smugmug website! As much as we enjoyed Helsinki, our flight was booked to Belgium and the beers and fries were calling our names. We arrived by plane to Brussels and got our first experience navigating the trains and subways in the big city. It is a little intimidating, especially when the metro, buses and trains are all in the same ...

... were trying to find the "Holland Experience" 3D movie theater when we stumbled across one of the city "flea markets" which sold everything from clothes to antiques. We spent a couple of hours looking around and then eventually found the 3D theatre- only to realize that Wayne won't be able to see it in 3D anyway because he can only see out of one eye !!! We then found our way to the main shopping street where we spent some time walking around - thankfully by the time we got there most of ...

... a young couple (Phoebe and Floris) owns. It was really nice and newly remodelled (see Pictures 53 and 54). They had begun running the B&B just a few months earlier to help pay for the remodelling of their home and for some extra vacation money. It didn't hurt that they had a huge 3-bedroom house and it was only the 2 of them. Well, not exactly...Phoebe is a vet and has a ton of animals that include a really cute chocolate lab, 3 cats, 2 guinea pigs, a pond full of turtles, and ...