St Rumbold's Cathedral

Have you ever heard of the Flanders Region? Do you know how far it is? Did you know that one of the Flanders cities has a link with the famous composer Ludwig van Beethoven?

Well, I understand for many could sound surprising but the Flanders region is only just over 2 hrs from us and includes cities like Brussels, Bruges, Antwerp, Ghent, Leuven and many more. However, with this blog I would like to introduce Mechelen.
Mechelen may be small, but it is perfectly formed and ideal for a weekend break.

The capital of the Lowlands or Burgundian Netherlands Read more…

Fair play to Eurostar for being as transparent as possible in terms of their Green credentials. There has been a lively debate on guardian unlimited with readers being given a chance to put their questions to Eurostar’s Tread Lightly Team.

Much of the comment is based on the difference in cost between air and rail travel and the fact that the booking window for air travel is much longer than Eurostar’s 4 months - whilst there is a suggestion that this is due to engineering works schedules I’d suggest that it’s more to do with the cost implications of being on sale further in advance.

Also there are a few comments with regards to extending Eurostar’s network to facilitate easier connections through Europe - a project already under way through through the  RailTeam  .  Of  course given it’s complexity this is a long term project but the will is there.

As Eurostar grapple with having to achieve their green targets in a hard commercial environment  - there may well come a time when they admit that the pressure for profit may mean that they may have to scale back their Green ambitions.

However until then they are to be applauded to open themselves up to scrutiny on a public way.

Thanks to Justin for his last blog - a few things have changed in Leuven recently to put this lovely medieval city amongst the up and coming city break destinations.  A recent art exhibition of Rogier van der Weyden, the most influential Flemish painter of the 15thcentury and the first to depict real people with real emotions, has generated such an incredible interest amongst the art lovers to put Leuven as one of the places to visit in Belgium. Also the Tourist Office seems to have finally reacted to this new and increasing interest from the travellers with the immediate result of updating their official website which is now also available in English and provides a more reliable collection of information as well as a vast selection of pictures to present better this lovely city.   

Lovely Leven