Europe 2023

septiembre - octubre 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. Leer más

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Viajero Europe 2023
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- 14 sept. 2023 10:34
- ☁️ 21 °C
- Altitud: 122 m
- Australia State of Victoria Hume Melbourne Airport -37.667813, 144.84659637°40’4” S 144°50’48” E
Día 1
Up up and away
14 de septiembre de 2023, 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.Leer más
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Viajero Superb. Have a great trip
13/9/23ResponderTraducir
Viajero Starting with a spa treatment! Wow! Enjoy and safe travels!
13/9/23ResponderTraducir
Viajero Luxurious way to start your trip ♥️ Enjoy 🛩🍾
13/9/23ResponderTraducir
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Viajero Europe 2023
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- 15 sept. 2023 5:42
- 🌙 12 °C
- Altitud: 22 m
- Inglaterra Camden King's Cross St Pancras International Railway Station 51.531693, -0.126751°31’54” N 0°7’36” W
Día 2
London to Brussels
15 de septiembre de 2023, Inglaterra ⋅ 🌙 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.Leer más
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Viajero Doing this travel thing “right”!!
17/9/23ResponderTraducir
Viajero It all sounds completely amazing. I'm happy to join you on a wander up in Scotland!
17/9/23ResponderTraducir
Viajero Great
18/9/23Responder
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Viajero Europe 2023
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- 16 sept. 2023 17:00
- ☁️ 24 °C
- Altitud: 83 m
- Bélgica Wallonia Wavre Limal 50.689518, 4.58144550°41’22” N 4°34’53” E
Día 3
Lazy Saturday
16 de septiembre de 2023, Bélgica ⋅ ☁️ 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.Leer más
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Viajero Sounds like a perfect Saturday… even with the cake pan excitement.
17/9/23ResponderTraducir
Viajero Gorgeous weather and great company and food (minus dessert). Fabulous.
17/9/23ResponderTraducir
Viajero Lovely pics Danni. Very sad to tell you our Tycie was put to sleep this afternoon. We just couldn't wait until the end of the week as planned. He went very peacefully and we know we did the right thing, but it is so dreadfully sad.
18/9/23ResponderTraducir
Viajero Oh Katie - I am so sorry for your loss, despite it being the right thing it I’d still so terribly hard and sad. Thinking of you allxxx
18/9/23ResponderTraducir
Viajero ❤️
18/9/23ResponderTraducir
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Viajero Europe 2023
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- 17 sept. 2023 14:30
- ☁️ 24 °C
- Altitud: 69 m
- Bélgica Flanders Hoeilaart 50.767692, 4.47392550°46’4” N 4°28’26” E
Día 4
Nerorock and Grape Festival Hoeilaart
17 de septiembre de 2023, Bélgica ⋅ ☁️ 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.Leer más
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Viajero Love their name - the meltheads 😂
26/9/23ResponderTraducir
Viajero I know what a great name - the lead singer looked so young but was very good and had so much energy
26/9/23ResponderTraducir
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Viajero Europe 2023
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- 18 sept. 2023 10:00
- ⛅ 18 °C
- Altitud: 43 m
- Bélgica Wallonia Wavre 50.714808, 4.61041250°42’53” N 4°36’37” E
Día 5
Get things done!
18 de septiembre de 2023, Bélgica ⋅ ⛅ 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.Leer más
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Viajero Lovely paced day! I’m in Perth for a few days - max of 20 degrees!
18/9/23ResponderTraducir
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Viajero Europe 2023
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- 19 sept. 2023 11:00
- 🌬 16 °C
- Altitud: 11 m
- Bélgica Flanders Gent Universiteit Gent / Fac. Rechtsgeleerdheid 51.053047, 3.72075551°3’11” N 3°43’15” E
2 1
Día 6
Ghent
19 de septiembre de 2023, Bélgica ⋅ 🌬 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.Leer más
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Viajero Incredible architecture.
19/9/23ResponderTraducir
Viajero Stunning. Very atmospheric.
19/9/23ResponderTraducir
Viajero Bugger the architectural stuff. Is that gorgeous jacket new?
19/9/23ResponderTraducir
Viajero Relatively new, got it in June. It is from Gorman
20/9/23ResponderTraducir
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Viajero Europe 2023
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- 20 sept. 2023 10:00
- ☁️ 18 °C
- Altitud: 84 m
- Bélgica Wallonia Wavre Limal 50.689595, 4.58121750°41’23” N 4°34’52” E
Día 7
Relaxing Day in Limal
20 de septiembre de 2023, Bélgica ⋅ ☁️ 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!Leer más
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Viajero There is something about cooking with home grown vegetables 🥗
21/9/23ResponderTraducir
Viajero Absolutely- they are so fresh and delicious
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Viajero Europe 2023
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- 21 sept. 2023 0:11
- ☁️ 19 °C
- Altitud: 49 m
- Bélgica Wallonia Wavre 50.714863, 4.61105550°42’54” N 4°36’40” E
Día 8
Rainy Thursday
21 de septiembre de 2023, Bélgica ⋅ ☁️ 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.Leer más
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Viajero Great to see Elvis on the wall!
22/9/23ResponderTraducir
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Viajero Europe 2023
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- 22 sept. 2023 11:00
- ☁️ 14 °C
- Altitud: 27 m
- Bélgica Brussels Maison Communale 50.846592, 4.35299550°50’48” N 4°21’11” E
Día 9
Brussels or Bust
22 de septiembre de 2023, Bélgica ⋅ ☁️ 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.Leer más
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Viajero Wow! So beautiful. Those chocolates look delicious. I hope you sampled them.
23/9/23ResponderTraducir
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Viajero Europe 2023
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- 22 sept. 2023 19:00
- 🌧 13 °C
- Altitud: 75 m
- Bélgica Flanders Tervuren Voer 50.814701, 4.50958350°48’53” N 4°30’34” E
Día 9
Catching up with family
22 de septiembre de 2023, Bélgica ⋅ 🌧 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.Leer más
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Viajero Sounds amazing :) Lovely home too!
26/9/23ResponderTraducir
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