In early March 2026, Frank invited me to join a behind the scenes tour of the Antwerp opera house. The place now houses Opera Ballet Vlaanderen or Opera Ballet Flanders, which – as the name clearly says – brings opera and ballet, and classical concerts.
Category: Experience
RHINELAND-PALATINATE | Kurioos and Queer Koblenz
After Bonn in 2023 and Münster in 2024, Dennis and I went further than North Rhine-Westphalia for our 2025 Christmas market in Germany outing. We went to Koblenz in Rhineland-Palatinate, at the confluence of the Rhine and the Moselle rivers. Hence the name of the city.
NMBS / SNCB’s centenary train visits Schaerbeek (29–30 August), Liège (12–13 September) and Antwerp (10–11 October)
NMBS / SNCB will mark its centenary with a unique travelling exhibition bringing together almost a century of Belgian railway history in a single 300-metre-long train. Featuring historic locomotives and carriages spanning from the 1930s to the latest generation of rolling stock, the exhibition will visit Schaerbeek / Schaarbeek in Brussels, Liège-Guillemins, and Antwerp-Central Railway…
Belgian Beer Weekend and Belgium Beer Week: two different celebrations of Belgian beer
Belgian beer will be celebrated on two separate occasions this summer, but Belgian Beer Weekend and Belgium Beer Week are not the same event. While both celebrate Belgium‘s beer culture and its recognition by UNESCO, they have different organisers, formats and geographical reach.
BULGARIA | Burgas to host 2027 Eurovision Song Contest on Tuesday 11 May, Thursday 13 May, and Saturday 15 May
Burgas, Bulgaria’s Black Sea city, will host the Eurovision Song Contest in May 2027, bringing the world’s biggest live music television event to the country’s coast for the first time. The 71st Eurovision Song Contest will be staged at Arena Burgas, with the three televised live shows scheduled for Tuesday 11 May, Thursday 13 May…
2026 | The state of LGBTI rights in Europe’s next generation of EU members
ILGA-Europe and the Equal Rights Association (ERA) have warned that anti-LGBTI legislation and democratic backsliding are becoming a defining feature of the European Union enlargement region, urging Brussels to use accession talks more forcefully to defend fundamental rights.
COLORADO | Five days in Denver and Boulder
September 2025. After Oscar came to London in June 2024 and I joined him there for a day, I’m now going to his hometown of Denver in Colorado. My second trip to the United States in 2025, after visiting my uncle and aunt in Wilmington, North Carolina. No, Denver is is not on foreign tourists’…
Antwerp Pride 2027 dates to be determined: 2 to 8 or 9 to 15 August
2026 marks the nineteenth (19th) edition of Antwerp Pride. From Wednesday 5 to Sunday 9 August, Antwerp in Belgium will once again be taken over by rainbow vibes. Prides are a mix of celebration – parties – and activism and advocacy. For the 2026 edition, the organising committee focuses on fearing less and being fearless.
BRUSSELS | Model trains take over Train World for summer exhibition from 18 to 30 August 2026
Model railway enthusiasts can take a miniature journey this summer as Train World in Schaerbeek / Schaarbeek in Brussels hosts a temporary exhibition dedicated to model trains. From 18 to 30 August, the museum and Media & Rail will bring together model railway layouts and miniature trains in an exhibition aimed at both children and…
BALTIC STATES | A week for Tallinn in Estonia, Riga in Latvia and Vilnius in Lithuania by train, exploring Rail Baltica
August 2025. We’re travelling to the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and more specifically their respective capitals Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius. Are they interconnected by rail? Yes, but not in the most straightforward or userfriendly way possible. The Rail Baltica project should remedy this. Unsurprisingly though, this megaproject faces political and budgetary hurdles. It…