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Europe 2023

September - October 2023
We are off to Europe to catch up with family, explore new cities and revisit some favourites. We will also be joining a walk and wine tour with Explore through Spain and Portugal. Read more
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  • TravelerEurope 2023
    Day 1

    Up up and away

    September 14, 2023 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    Waiting in the First Class QANTAS Lounge to start my journey. I am leaving a couple of weeks before Ian so that I can spend some time with family in Brussels.

    On arrival in the Lounge I was offered a spa treatment which was wonderful and a great way to start my travel. I have also been upgraded to business for the first sector of my trip. I am flying via Singapore with a four hour layover. I will get to Heathrow Friday morning and get the Eurostar over to Brussels.Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2023
    Day 2

    London to Brussels

    September 15, 2023 in England ⋅ 🌙 12 °C

    I had a layover in Singapore and was able to make use of the fabulous QANTAS First Class Lounge - I was able to have a delicious meal, a couple of cocktails and chill till we departed. After a very smooth trip from Singapore to London, in which I was able to get 10 hours sleep as I was upgraded to Business, I arrived early this morning at Heathrow and made my way across to St Pancras to catch the Eurostar to Brussels.

    As a solo traveller I have met and spoken with a broad range of interesting people from all over the place. My neighbour on the plane was Deborah who was off to a knitting convention on Shetland - she was a very interesting woman who has travelled to some wonderful places. Following the knitting convention she is walking around the top end of Scotland for a couple of weeks - sounds like a great experience which I need to add to my bucket list.

    I then met a lovely woman from New York who was travelling with her adult son who had showed her London and was now taking her to Paris for the first time.

    On the train trip to Brussels I sat near a lovely American couple, Stephen and Deborah who are off to Amsterdam.

    It is one of the things I love about travelling, the wonderful people you encounter as you explore this wonderful world.

    My ticket on the Eurostar included a lovely little lunch. I also got to see most of the last quarter of the Melbourne vs Carlton game as there were a group of Aussie lads watching it near me. Made it to Brussels just after 2pm where I then caught a local train out to Ottiginies where Brigitte picked me up and now we are sitting in the garden catching up over a wine. The weather here is great - mid twenties for the next few days.

    After a delicious pasta dish for dinner fatigue has started to take hold, so I am off to bed for an early night.    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2023
    Day 3

    Lazy Saturday

    September 16, 2023 in Belgium ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    I had a lazy start to the day - relaxing and reading and adjusting to the time difference and warm weather.

    Brigitte and I did some shopping and then started preparing for dinner as we had Gui, Geertje, Luc, Nathalie, Sohan and Stéphane and Emma for dinner.

    I made an apple cake which ended up being a disaster as the cake form Brigitte had leaked and so the floor of the oven was covered in cake batter. So no dessert tonight.

    We are having a barbecue with brochettes and sausages. I made some guacamole which was a big hit with everyone and we also made a potato salad and a green salad.

    It was a lovely evening catching up with family.    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2023
    Day 4

    Nerorock and Grape Festival Hoeilaart

    September 17, 2023 in Belgium ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    This afternoon we headed over to the village of Hoeilaart for Nerorock and Grape Festival. There was a carnival, flea market, food stalls and lots of beer options, the Belgians do love their beer.

    My cousins wife Geertje was born in Hoeilaart and so I got to meet her siblings, nephews and nieces etc, it was a real family affair. We wandered through the flea market, stopped for a drink and to sample some of the local fare.

    There was a large stage set up in the park and we watched one of the bands - the Meltheads - a young, local, energetic punk band, that I quite enjoyed. The weather has been unseasonably warm and very humid. It was a pleasant way to spend the afternoon.    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2023
    Day 5

    Get things done!

    September 18, 2023 in Belgium ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    Today we had a slow start as we weren’t in a rush to go anywhere. We had a number of errands to run and things to do. We headed off to Ottiginies to purchase a large box from the Post Office so that I can send a whole lot of clothes I left here last year when the plan was to spend 4 months in Cahors.

    Then we picked up some lovely soaps from Provence that I really like and we went and bought some delicious chocolates as a thank you to a women who found a number of cards belonging to Stéphane that he had lost. I then also got my hair cut as my hairdresser went on holidays recently and so I wasn’t able to get a trim prior to heading off on holidays.

    I then took Brigitte out to lunch to a favourite restaurant of ours, Maxime, in Wavre. Brigitte had moule frit and I had steak tartare, the meals were delicious.

    After lunch we did some grocery shopping and planned dinner- deciding I would cook schnitzel, which was a hit with both Emma and Stephane.

    We also harvested some of the wonderful produce Brigitte and Stéphane grow including tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers and pumpkins. I also finished my first holiday novel - Before the Coffee Gets Cold - which was a lovely read and I have now started reading Vanessa McCausland’s - Dreaming in French - which I am thoroughly enjoying.    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2023
    21
    Day 6

    Ghent

    September 19, 2023 in Belgium ⋅ 🌬 16 °C

    Today we took a day trip to Ghent, a port city in northwest Belgium, at the confluence of the Leie and Scheldt rivers. During the Middle Ages Ghent was a prominent city-state that was a centre for weaving. In the 18th & 19th Century Ghent’s textile industry flourished again. The first mechanical weaving machine assisted with this and it was smuggled in from Manchester. Today Ghent is a University town and cultural centre that is known for its wonderful medieval architecture.

    After wandering around the city and stopping for lunch at a nice Italian restaurant, we booked tickets on a canal tour which took us on a lovely boat ride around the waterways of Ghent. Our guide Pierre was very interesting and had quite the sense of humour and he provided us with a myriad of anecdotes about Ghent as well as providing us with a lot of information about the history of this fabulous city.    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2023
    Day 7

    Relaxing Day in Limal

    September 20, 2023 in Belgium ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    After the big day visiting Gent yesterday, today is going to be a nice relaxing day hanging around home and getting some jobs done. I had left a whole bunch of stuff at Brigitte’s place last year as I had intended to spend several months in Europe this year - plans change and now that extended stay won’t be for a couple of years. So I packed up all my warmer gear and posted it back to Australia.

    The weather is still very mild, although some cooler and wet weather is forecast over the next couple of days. Stéphane, Brigitte’s son has created a wonderful garden that produces so many vegetables, so today more produce was picked from the garden including pumpkins, zucchini, potatoes, onion, cucumbers and tomatoes. The zucchini are huge and plentiful so I decided to show Brigitte how to make zucchini slice. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the slice - something they had never had, but will now make as it is a great way to use up zucchini.

    I also spent some of today reading my second holiday novel - Dreaming in French by Vanessa McCausland - it is such a good read I am afraid it will be finished in a couple of days!    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2023
    Day 8

    Rainy Thursday

    September 21, 2023 in Belgium ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    Woke up to the rain falling. We had planned to go to Brussels today but there is rain predicted all day. So I spent the morning doing some laundry and getting organised for our trip to France as the next few days before we leave are going to be very busy with social engagements.

    For lunch we met up with Brigitte’s friend Eva and we went to Le Bar à K a lovely little spot in Wavre that Brigitte and I frequented many times during my visit last year. They both had garlic prawns and I had prawns with Chicory. We had a lovely bottle of rosé to go with the meal. It was also an early celebration for Brigitte’s birthday which is Saturday.

    After lunch we went back to Eva’s place in Limal for coffee.

    Tonight Brigitte made the National Belgian dish Chicons au Gratin, (there is some debate about what is the National dish - some say Waterzooi (Soupish Stew) Moules Frites (Mussels & Fries) Cannibales (a type of steak tartare) and Waffles are all on the list. Chicons au Gratin consists of Chicory that is boiled and then wrapped in ham, placed in a baking dish, covered with white sauce and cheese and then placed under a grill. It is an interesting dish and quite delicious. It is a good dish on a cold day.    Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2023
    Day 9

    Brussels or Bust

    September 22, 2023 in Belgium ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    Today I caught the train into Brussels. I wanted to wander around the city and visit a few favourite places such as the Grand Place. The weather was quite promising in the morning and early afternoon, so I made the most of it. When it started to rain I went and grabbed some lunch from my favourite Italian restaurant before making my way back out to Ottiginies where Brigitte picked me up. While in the city I went to my favourite chocolate shop, Marys, where I treated myself to a few of their delicious chocolates.Read more

  • TravelerEurope 2023
    Day 9

    Catching up with family

    September 22, 2023 in Belgium ⋅ 🌧 13 °C

    Tonight Brigitte and I had dinner with Gui and Geertje and their children Rob and Lisa and their partners Lisa and Ousmane. Geertje always cooks a delicious meal and tonight was no exception.

    It was also great to spend time with Rob and Lisa and their partners, who I was meeting for the first time. It was a lovely evening with lots of laughter and conversations in Dutch, French and English. So nice to spend time with family.Read more

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