Virtualtourist meetings in 2007

Sabsi, Thomas and Win were coming from Germany to spend some days in Brussels. Reason enough for me and Caroline to look them up there. We booked a hotel for the night and stayed till 31st. We had to return before the strike of the trains (4th weekend in a row!).
My little devil-sister Melissa, who recently moved to Brussels, joined us later in the evening and we all ended up at the Archeduc in Rue Dansaert.
it was sooooooooooo cosy that we simply forgot time sipping at our coctails, listening to the music, watching the crowed (hey Melissa spotted Daan ! A singer http://daan.be ) that it soon became 2 am.
It was a lovely evening, we have to do that more often :)

Thank you dear Melissa for the hospitality!
I hope next time I will be back to share some coctails `-)
I loved your colour changing light!

The next day we went for a walk in Avifauna since the entrance was included in our hotel fee of Hotel De Valk (btw very nice hotel with nice rooms!).
Afterwards we went for a visit in Gouda. As it was Sunday the streets were not overcrowded.
We had a lovely day again!
Thank you Gonnie for being our guide there.

Congratulations Gonnie and Tom for your 12, year anniversary of your marriage.
They invited their family and VT friends to celebrate it together.
We had a delicious dinner in their favorite Chinese restaurant with the singing cook `-)
oh well I know... owner hehehe
thanks again for the invitation!
It was super!

Liz and Mike are big fans of the Californian group The Alkali Flats and followed them through Belgium and the Netherlands.
So that is how they ended up at our place for a night as the group played in Mortsel.
Me and my daughter Eve joined them to the pub PB to go see them.
It was fun :)

On 19th of September I first met up in the afternoon with Wilber and Sylivia who newly arrived in Belgium. My daughter joined with Safi and we had some fries. Later on we met up with Reza. All of us went to jion Bashir at his hotel. We had a nice talk and spend some lovely hours together.
Thank you Bashir for the minestroni and the tea :)
Thank you Reza for being a good companion on the way back home.
I had a lovely time meeting you all.

Reza1 went with me to Brussels on occasion of the open monument day.
We decided to do the trip in Sint Gillis. We visited the Pelgrim's house and the City Hall but skipped Hotel Hanon as the queue there was inmense. An occasional visit to the Horta House was canceled because it was too early we came before they opened again after their lunchbreak.
We ended to have a nice late lunch or rather early dinner in a little Portuguese restaurant near the city hall and then walked throught the Marollen back to the Grand Place where we could join the ambiance of some festivities there.
Then it was time to go home.

on 15th September Reza who stayed for a training in Lier went with me to Brugge.
It was probably a bit short notice for others to join.
We walked around a lot and went to the eldest pub in Bruges and ended at the very 1st Beerfestival in Bruges.
Ofcourse we did not do just drinking an pubs!
We discovered a lot of quiet places around.

unexpected and last minute planned meeting but what was intended to be a short meeting up, turned out to be a nice evening and took such long time we missed the first nightbus home :)
It was nice meeting this American/Canadian couple!

Our young maried much in love couple Marie-Claude and Cedric came to Brussels for a drink with me and Amina.
We were invited to have a look in the hotel Mozart, very near the Grote Markt.
It looked wonderful!

This was a meeting organised by Roy (Imaniac) and the 3rd in a series of biannual meetings (woww does time goes fast!!!)
This time Roy took us in the most modern part of Maastricht city. Very interesting to see how quickly the area of the former ceramic factory changed into a place with late modern designs.
I loved the way most of the appartments had nice terraces and nice inneryards and grassfields and greenery which gave it the impression of being very spacefull.
The restaurant at the end provided us for future fun stories about places you don't even want to send your worst enemy towards...
or maybe you would? :))
Thanks Roy for the organisation of the walk and the boat trip!

on 14th of July Jeanne-Marie and Allain invited us to the city and we met up with Dennis Dfactor for a drink at the pub the Engel.
Pity he could not stay longer.
We went afterwards for a delicious dinner at Het Zolderke where we ate mjammieee mussels.
Thanks for the great evenening again friends!

5th of May I received an email of Reza if I would be in Antwerp or Lier for a drink.
No kidding! I would be in Lier with a group from work for a guided tour but would be occupied.
But after the tour Reza joined us for a drink.
It was a pity the time we had to talk was limited but I hope next time we make it a longer meeting.

On 19th of May Jeanne-Marie and Allain invited the Radifison family and friends (Sam; neighbours; friends from the Netherlands...) for a big reunion with barbeque.
They also invited some of their VT friends like Myriam and Maurice, Caroline, Tom and Gonnie, Rudy en me.
I spent a big deal of the afternoon walking around in Antwerp with the family. My day started with a minor traffel accedent with my tram and a car, so I had to walk half a hour to our meeting place. Good thing was that I was early :)
So I made it on time.
We never made it to 5 pm :)
there was something about missing some sleep the previous night with this family `-))

We decided to travel to Zandhoven where some prepared themselves for a late evening or sleepless night by taking a short nap before the rest of the invitees were dropping in.
It was so nice to meet up with this family, to enjoy their love for music and singing :)
and it was so nice to meet up with the friends again!
Thank you for the invitation Jeanne-Marie and Allain! We really appreciate and enjoyed it.

Pour la famillie Malagas, mercie pour ta compagnie pendant notre promenade l après midi ainsi que pour l'entretainement musicale pendant la soirée. J' espère bien que vous êtes tous bien retournés à la douce France :)
A la prochaine!

On the 5th of May there was a huge combined HC;VT:S:CS:BW meeting organised by VT member Thorgal67(Frank).
On the meeting I met up with my other VT duvel sister Melissabel and also with Phillyjohn who visited us last year as well but was now again in Europe with his lovely daughter Nancy.
When going from the Monk cafee towards the Grand Place to see the performance by Hooverphonic, some one tapped me on the shoulder and when I turned around it was our dear Guillian! Wowww what a coincidence! She was there with her friend I met also last year (he is such a kind one) and her parents (what lovely folks and cheerful!).
So after a few songs of Hooverphonic and pushed a bit too much around by the moving crowd... I headed back to the Monk caffee but never arrived there as I was too tempted to get to know the parents and have a few chit chats with a friend I haven't been seen for too long.

We stayed at Hotel Old Tom and next morning after a good breakfast we made our way to Westvleteren, hoping that In de Vrede we could buy a six pack... but no luck, nothing on sale, only to drink, so we (B_Caro;Diamonddog and Irisbe) ended up drinking a green Westvleteren a quarter past 10 in the mornint... and believe me we were not alone! This must have been the earliest beer I ever drank!
After dat we drove to Esen and bought us some Oerbier and Arabier and Dulle Teve in the Dolle brouwers brewery.
Then we made a short stop at Roeselaere, with a partial visit to the cycling museum and from there we went to Kortrijk where I finally could visit the beguinage that indeed is really beautiful! It also was the last day of the yearly fair and on every square was happening something.
At 5 pm we drove direction Antwerp again.

Organized by Jean-Piere, Filip and Frans (attending from a distance)
It was a great day!
I saw many friends again and I met a few new ones too!