Ostend Hotel Ostende

What is she doing in Dunkerque, they ask? And well they might as I was supposed to be far South of here by now. However it's a miracle I am in France at all tonight so let me tell you about my journey. At 9 this morning everything looked promising. "Operation Stack" which had closed the M20 was ended. The Eurotunnel information line told me that...

Everyone's been telling me to write an entry, and I really want to but I can't find a caffe with internet in this town. It is too tiny! I'll have to wait to write a proper entry once I get to Antwerp or Bruxells. For now, I'm in Brugge and staying with a very nice software developer who is very talkative despite his thick Flemish accent. It's ha...

I slept really well last night at Johanna's place (yes, I promise to make entries -even if they're short- for past days/cities). Then this morning I took the bus under a light drizzle to the Ghent main train station. There I paid my 6.6 Euros for a round trip (weekend price) to Brugges (Brugge/Brujas), which I had heard so much about.

I h...

brugge is a fifteen minute drive (depending on how good the person holding the map is... and it was me... and i don't read dutch maps well) from the netherlands border. so we HAD to go. another country notched on our belt.

eede is a small town in the middle of flat frosty nothingness. i'm sure in the summer the fields are full and green.....

the dutch spell brugge but the french spell bruges. so what does the english language use? bruges! i find that kind of weird. shouldn't we take the spelling of the locals? we're so silly.

this medieval town (subject of a wonderful movie staring colin farrel) is a bit (as the movie suggests) like purgatory. it's such a comfortable city wit...

On our way back home we stopped at Westvleteren. This is the home of the lovely monks who brew a very good beer. This beverage is not available to the average human. Technically you can only buy it at the abbey (although you can find it but it is extremely expensive). This is not mass produced by any means. A couple of years ago they were named ...

After the whirlwind trip through Holland, and as I'm now getting what I believe to be a stress cold, I was ready for some chill tourist time. So yesterday myself, Monia and her boyfriend all piled into the car again to head to Bruges, a semi-coastal town which was once the main economic hub of Flanders, and still has much to show for it. First t...

Bruges, which means "landing stage" in the old Norse language, was in its heyday one of the most important trading centres in Northwest Europe. It has since become one of Belgiums premier tourist attractions, drawing millions every year. What was supposed to be a one hour long journey took two cos I missed my stop and although I thought of press...

One of the reasons I stayed in this hostel was that it advertised a free breakfast. I was not disappointed. It wasn't really a hot breakfast, but there was toast, drinks, some kind of sugary bread, and sandwich food. Sandwich food meant I made a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch. I really don't spend much on food. I've found that a sandwich for ...

The train service in Europe is really fantastic. I'd say they are smoother than riding in an airplane. You can barely feel that you are moving. All of the engines are electric too, even on the freight trains. Some have two levels, but ours was only a single level. There is of course, first class and second class, but I can't tell much of a d...