Hotel Malcot 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!!

... to the top by the promise of an ice cream cone when we got to the bottom! With Mechelen having so many churches, literally not 10 minutes goes by without the very loud sound of ringing church bells. Sometimes they last for just a few seconds sometimes 10 minutes! The sign that welcomes you to Mechelen is covered with pictures of bells if that gives you an idea of how well known the city is for them ...

... Fatty K's label's owner/operator, Pita (again, of Showarma records).  Pita was from Morrocco originally, so we had a lot to talk about (e.g. Gnawa, the Master Musicians of Jajouka, Najat Aatabou, and other artists from the Maghreb like Anouar Brahem).  Told him about all the amazing musicians I will be recording like the upright bass player Miles Jay, the Turkish darbuka player Misirli Ahmet, the nay player Moslem Rahal, and the oud player Hazem Shaheen.  I played him some ...

... building. We then had some traditional fries &amp; mayonnaise with beer. After that we went to the Centre 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 ...

... AND my old one, containing my visa for Australia. They have to be united in Perth in a month. Sick of me asking, Tony shows me, but .... there is only one: my old one. Big panic. We do not even have a key to the house, where my passport is on !!! But: Linda has. I call her. She will pick up the key from her home, drive to our house, pick up the passport and come back. But, that is just it! We have no idea where the ...

... thing... I don't know if it is because our time was limited, or because we come from a country that everybody is running after something and waiters just break legs to serve you, but this is not the story in Mechelen. We waited and waited and waited for someone to take our order, and when we finally did give it, we then waited and waited and waited (seemed like forever) untill our order was actually there! And this is not just one place, this happened all over in every ...

... those of us seasoned BART trans-bay tube riders have come to dread. Nosiree, they had done Eurostar right, and soundproofed it like no tomorrow. Gosh or golly gee, what I wouldn't give for BART to do the same thing on its trains. Soon the French, then Belgium countryside flashed by in a hurry, hellbent to get us to Brussels, and none to soon. After arriving at ...

... running there... but it ended up ok. Then we headed to Onur's place with Gregoire (HC:gregoire) by car. And went in to meet some really great member, Jenny from Utrecht (HC:dutchamericanjenny) was there as well as several Brussels member and from the surrounding. I talked with some people lots that I dont remember and lots that I knew from the past, then I met this Icelandic girl that Martin (HC:mart_o-cloc) brought and she was rather naughty, on the way of hitting on ...

... We got out of bed at 10am and walked into town again. Brussels is a nice wandcering town. There's not that much to do but it's nice to just meander and see what you can find. We took a tour of the Town Hall which is very ornate and full of paintings of the royals. I knew Belgium was controlled by almost every European country at some stage in it's history but I never realised they were so powerful. At one stage the King of Belgium had 4 sisters, the Queen of Spain ...

... bathroom had cloth towels to dry your hands and bathrobes in the room, but the hallway smelled like aged urine. Gross. Finally, we found a normal hotel that didn't smell at the top of the hill over looking the town and the fort. As is common throughout Europe instead of a shower we had a tub with a shower hose, but the room was spacious, the hotel had been recently refurbished, and the whole thing was stink-free, so we were very happy. Here was ...