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Belgium posts
Video of the Day: Brussels to Bruges in two minutes
Jan 9th, 2012 at 6:30PM:
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 are so much smaller than the United States, driving within a country or to neighboring nations is pretty simple. This video ...
The perils of solo travel, or, how to sexually harass someone without even trying
Jan 5th, 2012 at 8:30AM: 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 dining alone in a popular Antwerp restaurant. The waiter had seated me so that I faced another table less than ten feet away. ...Remembering the fallen
Nov 11th, 2011 at 11:00AM:
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 collapsed, the Ottoman Empire was mortally wounded, Germany's Kaiser's fell and so did Russia's Czar. The world changed forever ...The oldest printing press in the world
Nov 9th, 2011 at 10:00AM: 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 collection, including the oldest printing press in the world. Actually there are two of them, both from about 1600 and complete ...Luxury accommodation in the heart of Antwerp
Nov 8th, 2011 at 2:00PM:
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!
The Hotel Julien is firmly in the luxury hotel bracket with prices from 195€ ($268) and up, breakfast included. The ...Masterpieces of silver in Antwerp
Nov 7th, 2011 at 3:30PM: 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 make these works of art.
Besides talent, they have a sense of humor too. This wine cup, shown here in a photo copyright Hugo ...Fine dining in Antwerp
Nov 3rd, 2011 at 12:00PM: 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 they're called "Brussels waffles" after the capital. And let's not forget about Belgian chocolate!
I've been exploring Antwerp, ...Visiting a German bunker from World War Two
Oct 28th, 2011 at 2:00PM:
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 enjoyed superior military technology.
Occupied Belgium was soon covered with fortifications. The Germans feared an Allied ...Antwerp: Belgium's historic and modern port
Oct 27th, 2011 at 2:00PM: 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 me that Antwerp has a lot to do with Belgium's wealth.
It's the second largest port in Europe, and one of the top ten in ...Belgian chocolate: so good you can snort it
Oct 25th, 2011 at 4:00PM:
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 should have copyrighted it, because now in Belgium they're snorting chocolate. Not just any chocolate, but gourmet Belgian ...New Gadling travel series: the lowdown on the Low Countries
Oct 24th, 2011 at 2:00PM: 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 to Amsterdam and the Hague in The Netherlands.
There's a lot to explore and I have a full schedule. I'll be seeing castles, ...10 unique experiential hotels from around the world
Sep 30th, 2011 at 8:30AM: A trend in the travel world that is becoming increasingly popular is the "experiential" hotel. Many travelers are no longer looking for a basic room in a premier location, but instead for an experience that will allow them to get to know an (often remote) area, or at least have their hotel be something they'll never forget. From staying in mines in the deepest hotel suite in the world to getting ...Amsterdam art exhibit focuses on the Antwerp school
Sep 16th, 2011 at 1:00PM:
The Hermitage Amsterdam starts an important exhibition tomorrow focusing on the Antwerp school of Flemish art.
Rubens, Van Dyck & Jordaens: Flemish paintings from the Hermitage runs until 16 March 2012 and features almost a hundred paintings and drawings from some of the great names in Flemish art. Peter Paul Rubens is especially well covered, including his famous work Venus and Adonis, ...Disneyland in Sand: The Blankenberge Sand Sculpture Festival
Sep 6th, 2011 at 12:00PM: If you're traveling near Brugge, Belgium, over the next two weeks, you might be wondering if you took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in the outskirts of Paris. No worries – your GPS is not broken – you've just stumbled upon the annual Blankenberge Sand Sculpture festival. This year's theme happens to be the recreation of the Disneyland Paris Resort, based on the Magical Moments ...Visa-free travel by the numbers
Aug 15th, 2011 at 11:30AM:
Visa-free travel is easy travel. Procuring visas takes time, energy, and money, and is beyond debate a pain for frequent travelers. The erection of visa barriers responds to a number of factors, though it can be said without too many qualifications that the citizens of rich countries tend to have a much easier time accessing the world visa-free than do the citizens of poor countries.
The ...Gladiator died because of ref's error, says archaeologist
Jun 19th, 2011 at 12:00PM: A gladiator who fought 1,800 years ago may have died because of a bad call from a ref.
Archaeologists have long puzzled over a line in the epitaph of Diodorus the gladiator's gravestone. It reads, "After breaking my opponent Demetrius I did not kill him immediately. Fate and the cunning treachery of the summa rudis killed me."
The summa rudis was a referee who oversaw gladiator games. Unlike ...Lost travel friends
May 5th, 2011 at 1:45PM: Before Facebook--hell, before mobile telephones and email--it wasn't all that easy to keep in touch with people you might meet on the road.
You could exchange addresses and telephone numbers, of course, but by the time you were in a position to make a call or scribble a letter, the immediacy of the connection you'd shared while staying up all night on that Sardinian beach would probably be ...France's burqa ban goes into effect
Apr 11th, 2011 at 12:00PM: Today France has taken a controversial move and instated a burqa ban, aimed at the traditional religious covering worn by conservative Muslim women. The ban will potentially affect up to 2,000 women who wear a full-face veil in public, though it is unclear how the enforcement will work as police cannot remove the veil. Women who refuse to lift the burqa or niqab may be taken to a police station ...Schengen and the disappearance of European passport stamps
Mar 1st, 2011 at 10:00AM:
Creative new use for border crossing posts at German/Austrian border.
In the late 1980s, an American spending a summer traveling across Europe with a Eurailpass would see his or her passport stamped possibly dozens of times. With a few exceptions, every time a border was crossed, an immigration agent would pop his or her head into a train compartment, look at everyone's passports, in most ...Europe's relaxed attitude toward nudity makes American travelers uncomfortable
Jul 15th, 2010 at 8:30AM: While the image of a naked Rick Steves getting a rubdown in a Turkish bathhouse might be a bit TMI for many of us, the seasoned traveler, guidebook author, and travel show host makes some excellent points in a recent CNN article on Europe's cultural tolerance for nudity.
According to Steves, who starts the piece with a flashback from a 1978 trip, "if you can leave your inhibitions at home, you ...
