Discovering Liverpool

Inspired by the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest, we travelled by train to England in March. Combining ESC host city Liverpool with the industrial heritage of Manchester. Manchester to Liverpool was also the first steam railway line ever. A perfect pretext to travel to The North.

28 MAY | 150 years of trams in Antwerp

On 25 May 1873 the first horse-drawn tram ran in Antwerp from Meirbrug to St. Willibrord Church in Berchem, which back then was outside of Antwerp. On Sunday 28 May 2023, 150 years later, the Flemish Tram and Bus Museum or Vlaams Tram- en Autobusmuseum (VlaTAM) and heritage umbrella organisation META hold a Tramfest centered…

LIVERPOOL | Western Approaches / Liverpool War Museum

Inspired by the 2023 Eurovision Song Contest, we travelled by train to England in March. Combining ESC host city Liverpool with the industrial heritage of Manchester. Manchester to Liverpool was also the first steam railway line ever. A perfect pretext to travel to The North.

ANTWERP | Traveling exhibition #StolenMemory at Museum At the Stream (MAS)

Watches, jewellery, family photos, intimate trinkets: these are the (often last) belongings of concentration camp prisoners that were taken away by the German occupant during World War II when they were arrested. Arolsen Archives, the International Center on Nazi Persecution, still holds some 2,500 of those ‘personal securities’ and is seeking next of kin of…

67 countries where gay sex is illegal

On Friday, 14 April 2023, the Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean decriminalised homosexuality by repealing the law “indecent acts between males”. Time for an update of the list. Both ILGA World and Erasing 76 Crimes count the countries and US states which have laws against gay sex. Spoiler alert: the number of countries criminalising…

AREAS OF ANTWERP | St. James’ Church (Sint-Jacobskerk)

In November 2022, renovation works started on the east side of St. James’ Church or Sint-Jacobskerk in Antwerp. So when that was announced and before that area was closed off from the public, I went to visit the church.