30.06.2003 A weekend in Antwerp
It must have been more than ten years since the last time I visited Antwerp. I completely forgot how nice the city actually is. Beautiful architecture, great pubs and restaurants and a very relaxed atmosphere. In my previous visits I never got out of the city center, -hell, I never even got out of the first pub-, but now we put in some effort to see the different parts of the city.
These guys wanted to know if I was taking pictures for the newspaper. When I told them I wasn’t, they still wanted their picture taken, the fact that I would post them on the internet was more than enough.
Having a hotel and restaurant background myself, it’s always a delight to see waiters who take their job seriously. I don’t understand why restaurant owners don’t realize that the best prepared food cannot make up for “it’s-just-a-summer-job” waiters like you find a lot in Amsterdam.
Some highly recommended restaurants:
Bakery/Pub/Restaurant Wattman, Tramplein 3, Berchem. This place serves incredible food, the waiters are very friendly (as they are in most places in Antwerp) and the location is very nice. This is their mozzarella salad, it’s heavenly (btw, Jamie Oliver has a recipe for this salad in one of his books):
Also check out Mondoshiwan Couscous Bar. Great food, nice and simple styling, loungy music (think Caf? del Mar) and good service.
This moment made me realize I should perhaps make some business cards so people know where to find the picture I took of them. This father will probably never see this picture, and I’m sure he would want it.
Of course, more pictures are available here.
24.06.2003 Back from Calabria
We just returned from a 10 day fly-drive holiday in Calabria, a region in the south of Italy. In the travel brochure it said that this was the undiscovered region on Italy, free from mass tourism, where the true Italian spirit is still felt.
Well, that’s just partly true. In small towns like Morano Calabro people will stare at you wondering what the hell a tourist is doing in their little mountain village. However, if you go to Tropea or Pizzo, you’ll be surrounded by bus-loads of German tourists.
By the way, here’s an example of the southern Italian work ethic, which proves that it takes three people to paint the pillar in front of our cabin:
All in all the region is highly recommended, just beware of towns near the Thyrrenian coast. More pictures are available here.
24.06.2003 First post
This is so corny, I just joined the blog crowd. Luckily there’ll be lots of pictures and little bla… :)
Don’t forget about the photography page, which is still located at http://majesticmoose.net/photography
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