Author archive
8 July 2026
Leaving Belgium I reached the airport around 1045. Fearing the long waits that Kim experienced yesterday, I was delighted that everything went smoothly. It was a slow walk through crowds to get airside but there was no waiting for security. And because I was flying to Poland, another Schengen country, there was no immigration. I […]
7 July 2026
World Cup I woke up to news that Belgium had defeated (4-1) the USA in the World Cup. That wouldn’t normally mean much to anyone else but Belgium but it was significant to many people today because a few days ago, President Trump had contacted the FIFA head to have the red card given to […]
6 July 2026
I ordered an Uber for Kim to take him to Centraal station around 0745. He reported that it was chaos at immigration at Brussels airport, taking 90 mins to go through immigration. There had been only 3 officers processing a large hall of passengers. About 1000, I made my way to Centraal myself on foot, […]
5 July 2026
Dry run Today is our only whole day in Brussels. We weren’t too fussed about seeing and doing everything as we had been here 12 years ago. We started the day with a dry run (or walk) from the hotel to Centraal Station. The exercise turned out horribly for a few reasons: I wasn’t sure […]
4 July 2026
To Brussels by train (the hard way) Today we move on from Brussels to Amsterdam. The reason for our visit is so that Kim can fly back to Singapore (for New Zealand) on a confirmed reward ticket at much lower taxes compared to Amsterdam and other European cities. We basically applied the savings for the […]
3 July 2026
There wasn’t too much we wanted to do in the old city so we decided to time our visit in the late morning so we could have lunch, wander around and bring dinner back to eat at the hotel. Taking the train there around 1040, we headed to Dam Square where the Palace was. A […]
2 July 2026
Thoughts on leaving Ireland Even though we had thought of visiting Ireland for many years, we’ve only just done it. We seem to prioritise countries that are more different to where we live in New Zealand in terms of culture, landscape and weather. We enjoyed our stay, the scenery, the friendliness of people but it […]
1 July 2026
Our route today Today is our last full day in Ireland. It is our second longest day in terms of driving but it turned out to be the longest day with some sightseeing included, before finishing in Flemington (near Dublin) for the night. We left our Glencolumbkille B&B at 0830 with a route that would […]
30 June 2026
Kim woke up with vertigo this morning. This is something he had experienced briefly many years ago but hadn’t recurred. Perhaps it was the excessive heat with the underfloor heating and the thick blankets. We don’t have a big day planned today, with just some local sights in the area (and possibly a backtrack to […]
29 June 2026
Connemara Peninsula Today, we have our longest drive from Galway to County Donegal for a 2 night stay at a friend’s B&B. We were originally meant to break the journey into two days and have only one night stay there (and one along the way tonight). We left Galway at 0800 and as with yesterday, […]