Ah, the Good Old Days, when everyone lived in a perpetual Renaissance Festival quaffing ale and shouting "Huzzah!" It must have been wonderful.
Not!
People died young, the cities were filled with rats and open sewers, and God help you if you ever got arrested. You'd ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Belgium
Torture Museums Look At The Dark Side Of History
Ah, the Good Old Days, when everyone lived in a perpetual Renaissance Festival quaffing ale and shouting "Huzzah!" It must have been wonderful.
Not!
People died young, the cities were filled with rats and open sewers, and God help you if you ever got arrested. You'd ...Five Alcohol Factories To Kick Off Spring Travel
Spring is in the air, which means that most of us will be swapping our mulled wine and spiked apple cider for beer gardens and rooftop bars. Behind every good brew, though, is a distillery that made your buzz possible. And many of those outlets have turned into touristic ...Belgian TV Station Launches With 'Dramatic' Viral Campaign
Want to make a splash? Belgian TV station TNT wanted to launch with a bang, and so they set up a "push for drama" button in the middle of a quiet town square.
Watch what happens when someone asks for drama. We wish all launches would be this creative. ...
Top ten things to do in Brussels, Belgium
A couple of weeks ago I was chatting with some fellow travel writers and the conversation turned to Brussels. The general consensus seemed to be that Belgium's capital isn't worth visiting.
I disagree. While it can't compete with London or Paris, it has its own charm and ...Let's get it on: travel in the footsteps of Marvin Gaye with this new app
In 1980, famous singer Marvin Gaye's life was as at an all-time low. He was depressed, in the midst of a divorce, and even attempted suicide. He owned the IRS millions in back taxes, was having difficulties with Motown Records and was in the throes of a drug addiction.
...Photo of the Day: Sunset over Bruges
The Belgian city of Bruges is famous for its stunning medieval architecture - it's a fact made all the more apparent by today's photo, taken by Flickr user clee130. Taken at sunset, the city's gothic cathedral spires (that's the Church of Our Lady on the left, and St. ...Video of the Day: Brussels to Bruges in two minutes
Road trips seem to be a very American activity. Driving cross-country, family vacations to national parks and the like. However, road trips are popular around the world. Caravanning (what we would call RVing) is quite popular in the UK. Also, because European countries ...
The perils of solo travel, or, how to sexually harass someone without even trying
Here at Gadling we've talked a lot about the perils of solo travel, from how it can break up relationships to creating feelings of loneliness. On a recent trip to Antwerp I discovered a danger to solo travel I never thought of--people look upon you with suspicion.
I was ...Collect virtual passport stamps with VisaStamper
It's a favorite ritual for many travelers to leaf through their passport (often while waiting in an immigration line), reminiscing on each stamp and the destination it represents. When a passport is lost or expired, losing all those hard-earned stamps can be tragic. ...Remembering the fallen
Today is Veterans Day, also known as Remembrance Day and Armistice Day because in 1918, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, World War One ended.
For four years the nations of the world had torn each other apart. The Austro-Hungarian Empire ...Hagelslag: Belgian chocolate for breakfast
Chocolate. You gotta love it. You can eat it, cook with it, even snort it. It's good at every meal. Even breakfast, as I discovered on a recent trip to Antwerp.
The Belgians enjoy a special breakfast treat called Hagelslag. These are basically chocolate sprinkles put on ...The oldest printing press in the world
Antwerp has been an important port and center of commerce for centuries. Because of this it has a long history of printing and the elegant mansion/workshop of one of its early printing companies has been turned into a museum
The Museum Plantin-Moretus houses a huge ...Luxury accommodation in the heart of Antwerp
Antwerp is a compact city with bad weather, so while it's walkable, it pays to be in the center of town. During my visit I stayed at the Hotel Julien, a recently renovated and expanded hotel within sight of the cathedral. In fact, I could see it from my bathroom window!
...Masterpieces of silver in Antwerp
Belgium is famous for its silver. Belgian silversmiths have a history stretching back hundreds of years. Their work has always been sought after for its high degree of craftsmanship and so it's no surprise there's a Silver Museum in Antwerp dedicated to the craftsmen that ...Fine dining in Antwerp
For such a small country, Belgium certainly has contributed to world cuisine. French fries, for example, are actually Belgian, making that whole "freedom fries" movement back in 2003 even stupider than it appeared. They also gave us Belgian waffles, although over here ...Visiting a German bunker from World War Two
Belgium had it tough in World War Two. Unlike in the First World War, when the Belgian army stubbornly held on to part of the nation and its allies rallied to beat the Germans, in the second war the Low Countries and France were quickly overrun by a German army that now ...Antwerp: Belgium's historic and modern port
I've often wondered why Belgium is such a rich country. Its main claims to fame--chocolate, beer, Tintin, and a heroic fight against the Kaiser's army in World War One--are all noteworthy but hardly the stuff to earn billions. Some background research for this series taught ...Belgian chocolate: so good you can snort it
Back in grade school, my friends and I used to eat Smarties, those little sugar tablets that were so popular back then. Some of us, wanting to show off, used to pound them up and snort them. There was no better sugar rush. We used to call them "Snorties".
Well, we ...New Gadling travel series: the lowdown on the Low Countries
Today I'm starting a new travel series here on Gadling. While Alex explores Far Europe, I'm checking out Near Europe. I'm spending the next ten days seeing the sights and sampling the cuisine of the Low Countries. My first stop is Antwerp, Belgium, and from there I'll head ...10 interesting food museums from around the world
While many people visit museums in order to learn about culture, art, or history, how many out there can say they've gone to a museum to see an exhibit on SPAM? Or to learn the processing history of salami? While somewhat out of the norm, these 10 interesting food museums ...
