The Wild Side
When I was a teenager the crowd I was hanging with had discovered Lou Reed’s ‘Transformer’. We listened to it on good old fashioned vinyl. This was, after all, the eighties. It was an iconic album, intense, creative and whimsical. We were just into the music then and didn’t really get the entire scene that this artistic creation represented. Fast forward many years and I’m walking up several flights of stairs at the...
Mechelen – a Belgian gem
Mechelen is a short train ride from Gare du Nord. So short in fact that in Australia we wouldn’t call Mechelen a town as much as we would call it a suburb. But such are the differences in scale between the countries. Sunday rates on the train means Mechelen costs only €11.60 for two people return. In under twenty minutes we were at Mechelen station. Mechelen has two stations, Mechelen and Mechelen Nekkerspoel. Nekkerspoel is slightly...
Pampas Rodizio
Pampas Rodizio has a single option. An all you can eat menu for €29.90. You can choose either all you can eat fish or all you can eat meat and fish. The meal starts with a small tapas plate, then a plate of salad, a choice of either chips or potatoes, and a small bowl of vegetables. Once you have all these on the table, the fun begins. From this point forward, until you waddle out of the restaurant with two notches on your belt...
Parc Josaphat
My partner and I live around the corner from one of the most wonderful public parks in Brussels, Parc Josaphat. Brussels has many great parks, each of course has its own particular charms. Parc du Cinquanteniare has the mighty triumphal arch, tennis courts and 5-a-side football courts. Parc de Bruxelles likewise is a wonderful public space, with fountains, pavilions, a bar and a plethora of events enticing people in. But for me,...
Alhambra, Spain
There’s nothing to see in Granada. So said a Dutch friend as he steered us instead down from our mountain hideaway high up in the Andalusian mountains to the beaches of Malaga. Being a displaced Australian, Spanish beach resorts don’t do it quite the same for me as they do it for the Dutch. Fortunately, I have a couple of Belgian friends who know that there are actually good things to see and do in Granada and so I found myself at the...