Sleeping in the animal park has the advantage of being allowed in it earlier/later than the day visitors. The resort area in the west has - aside from the hotel rooms and cottages - black bears, gray wolves, beavers, .. and it’s open all night. The rest of the park is open to resort guests… Continue reading The last holiday day
Oooops. The goal was to get up at seven thirty, to have breakfast at eight, but I mismanaged my phone alarm and it goes off at six thirty. You would think, okay, just turn over and go back to sleep, but no, we only noticed when it was almost seven. Might as well stay awake,… Continue reading Pairi Daiza!
Up at eight forty five! If you’ve been following my posts for a while, you’ll fall off your chair in amazement. I did wake up just before seven and even got up for a moment, but I crawled back in to wait for Arne to wake up and next thing you know, it’s almost nine.… Continue reading Arboretum / medieval ruins
Wednesday 16 October. It’s our twentieth wedding anniversary! We’ll take off in the afternoon for a long weekend in the Ardennes, but first there’s a working morning, so the alarm is still set at six. It’s a complicated morning: I have work to finish before noon and also a few remote meetings planned, plus I’m… Continue reading Our (the hamlet)
One more day in Berlin, before we take the night train back to Belgium. Fortunately it’s not going to be super hot, there’s even a short drizzle this morning while we’re packing! Ready for check-out, we ask the concierge around nine thirty where we can leave the bike and bags and he replies that we… Continue reading A bunker with modern art
If you’ve traveled a lot in Europe and made a point of visiting the big museums, then you’ll have seen enough of the big masters like Picasso, Rubens, .. that you feel permitted to move on to lesser known art museums. I had hoped to visit the Pergamon museum because I wanted to see the… Continue reading Two lesser known museums and vegetable gastronomy
Up at seven, the usual breakfast and morning routine and we’re off again. It’s going to be a hot day - 30 deg C - but we don’t mind at all, as we’ll be spending it in the green and cool of the Berlin botanical garden. It’s not in the center, but we can take… Continue reading Berlin Botanical Garden
My eyes pop open before six thirty. No problem, my mom’s awake as well, so we decide to get up. We have an early breakfast (fruit/yoghurt again) because Mom needs to go get a shipping box at a nearby store. The trick is to ship most of the bike and camping gear home with a… Continue reading A shopping day
The agreement yesterday was to not get up before six thirty. I do wake up a few times during the night - unfamiliar bed, unfamiliar noises - but I feel rested by the time my mom shouts a good morning from the next room. The plans for today have changed after a brief review of… Continue reading Modern architecture and modern food
As promised by the Eurosleeper schedule, I arrived in Berlin at 06:18 in the morning. Mom had proposed to come and pick me up, but that’s just crazy at this ungodly hour if we’re only returning to the apartment anyway. I take the first taxi in the row - the driver is not impressed with… Continue reading Some random strolling
I’ve just returned from one holiday last Wednesday, but I’m preparing to leave again! Just lucky, the previous holiday was with a group and I didn’t determine the date, the next one is with my mom and I didn’t determine that date either. At least I have a few days at home to do the… Continue reading The sleeper train to Berlin
Now that we have the channel tunnel, the travel time from Belgium to England is not as long as you’d imagine, if you disregard the delays due to roadworks for a minute. We sort out the cottage and set off around nine, that should give us plenty of time to do some sightseeing along the… Continue reading Homeward!
Today is the last full day here in England and we will visit one of the busiest sites in the area: Stonehenge. Fortunately we had booked these tickets way beforehand, so we're assured of entry. A ticket is for a specific time and you're allowed in at that time or anytime fifteen minutes later. You… Continue reading Stonehenge / birds of prey
Up at seven with the alarm, what a bad night. I was awake often and long, I suppose the warm night and the narrowness of the bed could have something to do with it, or the late mac & cheese.. but I refuse to regret that! It’s tradition to visit a zoo on these family… Continue reading Longleat Safari Park
Today’s my birthday! 44, a nicely symmetrical number, I say. I woke up early, that’s handy because Mom calls me at six thirty, forgetting the time difference. Arne makes my breakfast, I get to pick the music and there’s thoughtful gifts at the breakfast table, a delightful start to the day. We have three options… Continue reading A day out in the sun
Saturday! The alarm wakes me at seven, I seem to have adjusted to the local time.. I’m sure the late night playing Scrabble has something to do with it. We had discussed the sights in the area yesterday and decided on the Army Flying Museum, as a change of pace from the old buildings the… Continue reading Army planes, iron age forts and board games
Our plan for today is to visit Bath. This is one of the most touristy places in the UK, so we had booked a private tour guide and the tickets to the Roman Baths a few weeks ago. The Baths really do get very busy, booking is done in time slots and in this season… Continue reading Bath
Up at six again, not by choice this time, my eyes simply popped open and wouldn’t close again. Six here is seven at home, so not surprising that I can’t make it to the alarm time set at seven local time. I start on yesterday’s blog and generally keep quiet in bed until seven, which… Continue reading Castle and chapel
Up and running at six this morning! We want to catch LeShuttle (the train through the channel tunnel) around nine. We're taking a trip with family, so we're a group of three cars, but it's nigh impossible to coordinate which train to be on, so we've agreed to meet up at our first activity in… Continue reading To England
Up at eight, breakfast with a book and slow internet. There’s a wooden sign on the kitchen counter saying ‘Sorry! No WI-FI, talk to each other and get drunk’. So if we want to look up info on a walk or the distance to a thing to see, we have to route it through a… Continue reading Rursee
I love German, really do. We arrived in Heimbach (Germany) yesterday in the early evening, about a three hour drive from home, but in a different world. Heimbach translates literally to ‘home rivulet’, there’s a few towns in Germany with that name so you have to check the postal code when inputting the address into… Continue reading Heimbach
Febe writes 