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’…
Tag: Belgium
11-14 JULY 2026 | Antwerp counts down to The Tall Ships Races as 36 majestic sailing ships prepare to arrive
Antwerp is preparing to welcome some of the world’s most spectacular sailing vessels as the 70th edition of The Tall Ships Races returns to the city from Saturday 11 to Tuesday 14 July. Organisers are putting the finishing touches to both the internationally renowned sailing competition and a four-day public festival that is expected to…
GAY MONACO | Monaco Pride 2026?
I visited the Principality of Monaco past Sunday. At the start of Pride Month, which is mostly an American affair, I wondered if Monaco has a Pride. It has, but not at a scale we’re used to. The principality on the Mediterranean Sea isn’t exactly known to be a queer hotspot.
TGV Brussels – Strasbourg – Basel from July 2027
Belgium‘s NMBS / SNCB, France‘s SNCF Voyageurs, and Switzerland‘s SBB CFF FFS are joining forces to launch a pilot project from July 2027 that will extend the existing TGV inOui service between the two European capitals of Brussels and Strasbourg in Alsace to the Swiss city of Basel.
RAIL | Spain and Portugal keep on-board train ticket sales
Belgium’s national railway operator, NMBS / SNCB, will stop selling tickets on board its trains from 1 July 2026. The decision, NMBS / SNCB’s leadership argues, follows a sharp rise in aggression towards staff, with 2,602 incidents recorded in 2025 – an average of seven per day – up from 2,103 in 2024. Will the…
Experiencing Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai Japan
Autumn 2025. We – Sam and Danny, Michel and Wille, and Timothy – are travelling to Japan for a quite classic tour of the Land of the Rising Sun. We are flying separately as we used miles. On the planning: Tokyo, Kanazawa, Shirakawa, Osaka, and Expo 2025, Hiroshima, Himeji, Miyajima, Kyoto, Nara, Nagoya, Hakone, and…
PROGRAMME | Antwerp Queer Arts Festival 2026 from Friday 19 June to Sunday 16 August
“We’ve been doing this for 13 years”, Antwerp Queer Arts Festival says. Since 2013, AQAF organises a queer, more edgy, more ‘alternative’, less polished, less gentrified (?) festival for LGBTQIA+ people in the summer. It runs alongside Antwerp Pride.
Deutsche Bahn Cologne – Ostend ICE caters to 700K Belgian Coast-loving tourists from Germany
German tourists are Belgium’s largest foreign visitor group at the coast, and a new direct high-speed rail ICE service between Cologne and Ostend aims to make travel to the North Sea even easier. Deutsche Bahn launched the seasonal weekend connection on Saturday 6 June, marking the return of a direct rail link between the two…
TGV 9870 Brussels – Strasbourg to be extended to Basel
According to railway observers and fans on Het Grote Belgische Trein Forum (The Big Belgian Train Forum), the SNCF-operated TGV 9870 from Brussels in Belgium to Strasbourg in Alsace, France, will be extended to Basel in Switzerland. This would happen from the mid-December timetable update.
NMBS / SNCB to expand train services by 3% under 2026–2029 transport plan
Belgium‘s Federal Government has approved a new three-year rail transport plan that will see state-owned train operator NMBS / SNCB expand its train services by a further 3% between December 2026 and 2029. One of the most notable changes will be the introduction of additional early-morning trains to Brussels Airport – Zaventem, allowing passengers from…