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…
Tag: Shopping
WINTER IN ANTWERP 2025-2026 | 1.5M visitors, 120K for New Year’s fireworks
The City of Antwerp has brought a highly successful edition of Winter in Antwerp (Winter in Antwerpen) to a close with its traditional New Year’s treat, capping four weeks of winter festivities across the historic city centre. This year’s edition attracted a total of 1.5 million visitors, confirming its status as one of the strongest…
Antwerp hotels and entrepreneurs want Winter in Antwerp to start two weeks earlier: winter wonderland or urban pressure cooker?
Few urban phenomena capture the contradictions of contemporary city life as clearly as the modern Christmas market. Branded as cosy, convivial and tradition-laden, winter events such as Winter in Antwerp (Winter in Antwerpen) attract hundreds of thousands of visitors, fill hotel rooms and dominate city-centre calendars for weeks on end. Yet behind the fairy lights…
FLANDERS | Ban on live animals at weekly markets impacts Vogelenmarkt in Antwerp
Since 1 January 2026, the sale of live animals at weekly markets is banned across Flanders, bringing an end to a long-standing practice that has been part of street life in several towns and cities for generations. The measure is part of the new Flemish Animal Welfare Code introduced by Flemish minister for Animal Welfare…
SOUTH KOREA 2024 | Impressions and observations
Autumn 2024. Ten years after my first trip to Seoul in 2014, I am returning to the Republic of Korea, better known as South Korea. Not solo this time, but with Oriol, who has never been to Korea. On the itinerary: flying with Qatar Airways to Incheon via Doha, the capital Seoul, the historic city…
ANTWERP | New overarching traders’ association Beleef Antwerpen to enhance shopping and general experience of city centre
Beleef Antwerpen vzw, which you can translate as ‘Experience Antwerp‘ or ‘Live Antwerp‘ (as a verb, not a noun) the new traders’ association for Antwerp city centre, brings shopkeepers, hospitality operators and other entrepreneurs together and will launch initiatives that put the city’s shopping streets even more firmly on the map.
SEOUL | Skipping Myeongdong to shop at Starfield COEX Mall in Gangnam
Autumn 2024. Ten years after my first trip to Seoul in 2014, I am returning to the Republic of Korea, better known as South Korea. Not solo this time, but with Oriol, who has never been to Korea. On the itinerary: flying with Qatar Airways to Incheon via Doha, the capital Seoul, the historic city…
SEOUL | Gangnam – Seonjeongneung Royal Tombs – Starfield COEX Mall & Library – Banpo Hangang Park – Some Sevit
Autumn 2024. Ten years after my first trip to Seoul in 2014, I am returning to the Republic of Korea, better known as South Korea. Not solo this time, but with Oriol, who has never been to Korea. On the itinerary: flying with Qatar Airways to Incheon via Doha, the capital Seoul, the historic city…
SICILY | Palermo
March 2025. We’re embarking on a train trip to Sicily. We fly from Brussels Airport to Leonardo da Vinci Rome Fiumicino Airport with ITA Airways. Then we take an Intercity Notte sleeper train by Trenitalia from Roma Termini Railway Station across Italy to Syracuse. Yes, the train is loaded on a ferry to cross the…
End of the line for Grand Bazar: Antwerp’s and Belgium’s shopping centres face new reality
The Grand Bazar shopping centre on Antwerp’s Groenplaats is set to disappear entirely to make way for the expansion of the Hilton Hotel, both Het Laatste Nieuws and Gazet van Antwerpen report. The once-busy mall will be largely dismantled, with only the ground-floor retail units remaining. These shops will no longer be accessed from within…
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