Antwerp Stadspark

Day Trip to Bruges

Rather than sit at home all day, Jan and I decided to take a day trip to Bruges.

Bruges (Dutch: Brugge) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country.

The historic city centre is a prominent World Heritage Site of UNESCO. It is egg-shaped and about 430 hectares in size. The area of the whole city amounts to more than 13,840 hectares, including 193.7 hectares off the coast, at Zeebrugge ("Seabruges" in literal translation). The city's total population is 117,073 (1 January 2008), of which around 20,000 live in the historic centre. The metropolitan area, including the outer commuter zone, covers an area of 616 km² and has a total of 255,844 inhabitants as of 1 January 2008.

Along with a few other canal-based northern cities, it is sometimes referred to as "The Venice of the North".

Bruges has a significant economic importance thanks to its port, and is also home to the College of Europe.

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La Cure Gourmande

As with the previous slide shows: if you'd like to see a particular picture in series, just click on it. Enjoy!

A Quick Jaunt to Amsterdam and Anne Frank Museum

Today was a rather quick, and fun, adventure to Amsterdam with some of the kids from Antwerp British School. Two of the teachers were taking the kids to see the Anne Frank House, and asked me to go along.

There aren't very many pictures here, as the trip was only about 3 hours long. I did manage to see some cool stuff, and have a nice double whopper with cheese at Burger King. So enjoy the photos. I've tried to caption them as much as possible. To see the picture, click on it, and you'll be taken to a larger image. Enjoy, and please leave comments.

Anne Frank Museum

Antwerp British School Ski Trip to Italy

For the past week, Jan when on a ski trip with some of the kids from his school. Along with fellow teachers they travelled to Bormio, Italy for what appears to have been a wonderful ski trip. We hope you enjoy the pictures. (Click on the photo to see a larger version).

Fresh From Italy

Here's some wonderful parmesan straight from Italy. Mmmm, good!

From Random shots

I don't understand why this house is €245k.

The snow is starting to really accumulate. Reminds me of home.

Kasteel Boekenberg

The castle was built for Maria Theresia Cornelia Kneiff, in 1752, and was designed by architect Jan Pieter Van Baurscheit. The castle and park have an interesting history. Willem Smets bought the manor in 1798 and build a tower . After many different owners it became, after being purchased by the municipality, a home for sick children. Later, in 1925, poor families are housed. Less then two years later, it was transformed into a hotel and restaurant for the rich. The park was opened to public in 1928. After a sale in 1955, to the Commission of Public Allowance, the castle was used as a rest home. Sold again in 1974, it has been reclassified and is now a home for young people.

The park has finally succumbed to the icy hand of Winter