Stuttgart 2022

July 2022. As a teacher, Steve has the possibility to do a bigger trip in the school summer break. I don’t, or rarely do. After The Hague in 2020 and Utrecht in 2021, we decided to go to Germany for a now more or less traditional three-day weekend in July. Our eye fell on Stuttgart,…

Rainbow zebra crossing in Berchem

The Antwerp district of Berchem – where I grew up – has now its own rainbow zebra crossing. I noticed it recently, walking in the Grotesteenweg (Great Causeway or Grande Chaussée), also known as the N1, at the crossing with the Driekoningenstraat (Magi Street) and Berchem District Hall. 

Monkeypox vaccine, an excuse for a day trip to Lille

Summer 2022. The monkeypox virus is spreading, almost exclusively amongst men who have sex with men (MSM). In Belgium it was and is almost impossible to be vaccinated. But in France, conditions are less strict. The Centre De Dépistage Anonyme Et Gratuit (CeGIDD) or Anonymous and Free Screening Centre in Lille (Rijsel) announced a day…

SNCF inOui (ex-TGV) Marseille to Lille

Every story has an ending and so has our September 2019 France escapade with Bordeaux and Marseille. It was time to return home from Marseille-Saint-Charles. We took an inOui, ex-TGV, to Lille-Europe and then a Belgian NMBS / SNCB train to Kortrijk and Antwerp.