The premetro tunnel connecting Antwerp’s left and right banks will close for almost a year for extensive renovation works, starting on 4 May 2026 and lasting until at least mid-March 2027. During this period, no trams will run between the Park-and-Ride Melsele on Linkeroever (Left Bank) and the Astrid and Diamant premetro stations near Antwerp-Central…
Tag: Shopping
WILMINGTON | USS North Carolina – Costco – Tidewater Oysters – Lewis Strawberry Nursery and Farm
Easter 2025. I’m visiting my uncle and aunt in Leland, North Carolina. It’s my first trip of two to the United States in 2025. I haven’t seen them live since February 2020 just before the first lockdown and I haven’t travelled to this area since 2019. I’m flying with SAS and Delta. The itinerary: Brussels…
ANTWERP | Concept for Meir redevelopment plan approved
The City of Antwerp has reached a new milestone in its plans to redevelop the Meir and the surrounding streets Leysstraat, Jezusstraat and Twaalfmaandenstraat. The concept design has been completed and approved by the city executive board, and will be submitted to the district executive board for approval on Monday (today).
Antwerp tourism breaks records again in 2025 with strong growth in day visitors, overnight stays and international events
Antwerp recorded another exceptional tourism year in 2025, welcoming a record number of visitors and confirming its position as one of Belgium’s leading city destinations. The city counted 16,271,561 day visitors, an increase of 3% compared with 2024, while stay tourism rose even more sharply.
NORTH CAROLINA | Walmart Supercenter Leland
Easter 2025. I’m visiting my uncle and aunt in Leland, North Carolina. It’s my first trip of two to the United States in 2025. I haven’t seen them live since February 2020 just before the first lockdown and I haven’t travelled to this area since 2019. I’m flying with SAS and Delta. The itinerary: Brussels…
JAPAN | Tokyo Station, its Character Street and Pokémon Store
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…
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…