Sunday, October 23 2005

A weekend at the Belgian coast

It was raining when we left Brussels for Koksijde at the Belgian West coast. But once we were there the weather changed and so we could make a beautiful walk in the village of Koksijde and find a cache with that name. On our way to our hotel we managed to make a little detour to find 2 other caches.
On Sunday we were able to find 5 caches. We walked through the dunes of De Panne and Adinkerke under a bright sun. The weather was just good for geocaching and we (my wife, Enzo our hound and I) really enjoyed it. Next time we shall search for a hotel in Nieuwpoort. There too, there are some caches waiting to be found by Barontoo!

Monday October 17, 2005

Geocaching in London

On October 17 I was on business trip in the center of London. The day before I did a search on geocaching.com to find the caches in the neighbourhood of Trafalgar Square and I found a lot of caches waiting for my visit. Quickly I noticed the co-ordinates in my GPS and printed some descriptions.
As I was going by train, the Eurostar between Brussels and London I had a long day (from 8.30 AM till 6.30 PM) and so I could do some caches before and after the meeting with my English collegues from the CTRL.

The weather was fine and sunny and it was great to walk from one cache to another. I visited a lot of interesting places I've never seen before! Some caches I did not find and other were very easy to locate. In total I found 11 stashs! I will log these this evening. And also write some DNFs.
I was pleased to find so many caches in the centre of London. I shall think it over to place some (micro)caches in the centre of Brussels. Also here a lot of visitors are arriving every day but the geocachers among them will not find as much caches as I did in London. That can be mended!

Sunday October 9, 2005

Visitors from Switzerland

This weekend we had guests: Manuela and Sandra, 2 lovely and friendly girls from Switzerland. They arrived from Paris by Thalys, the international high-speed train between Paris and Brussels riding at 300 km/h! They arrived at 10.40 AM on Saturday morning. First of all we visited the part of Brussels arround the royal palace and the "Grand Sablon". At 1 PM we went together with Nicole for a light lunch in a local Italian restaurant. Afterwards the girls went shopping in the Woluwe Shopping Center. In the evening we visited a Swiss restaurant in Brussels! We all enjoyed it very much.


On Sunday morning the 2 girls woke up late in the morning, they were so glad that they could sleep in a great bed. We had our breakfast at 10.30 AM. Then we left home to visit the center of Brussels. We looked at the most important buildings, we saw Jeanneke Pis and of course Mannenke Pis and ended in a typical Brussels café on the market place, after admiring the old townhal and surrounding houses. We eat afterwards in the Opera House and then it was time to go to the Brussels Midi Station where we arrived just in time to put our visitors on the Thalys.
Both of us, my wife and I were very happy with their company during this 2 days. We all had together a good time. Auf Wiedersehen, Maunela und Sandra (hoffentlich in der Schweiz!)

Friday October 7, 2005

A nationale strike paralyses Belguim

Yesterday evening at 10 PM the greatest union started a national strike. This morning there is no public transport and a lot of companies are closed. Most people have to stay at home as they can not go to their work. Perhaps a unaspected free day to go caching! But the weather is very bad this morning, it is very misty. I am wondering if we will see the sun today. If so ... I will go geocaching ....