Open fermentation

The area south of Brussels is well known among beer lovers for its open fermentation process. The first product called Lambic is absolutely not fit for human taste buds, or any other. It’s as if somebody’s done something unspeakably bad to your mouth, the mixture of hurt, shame and disappointment makes you think that you will never be able to savour anything again! The next step, Geuze, is a slightly drinkable improvement, thereafter it gets somewhat better with the addition of cherries or strawberries or some kind of blend producing my favourite, the Bourgogne des Flandres!

We visited three breweries and a distillery, beautifully called a ‘stekerij’ in Dutch, all of varying sizes and productivity. Some want to stay under the export tax radar so keep it small and quaint. Others, like Boon, go for the big time, it’s a massive industrialized brewery.

 

Overgrown temples and friendly people

Ever wished you could have been the very first modern-day traveller to discover overgrown temples, hacking through dense forest to suddenly come across amazing sites, abandoned for centuries…Somewhere on this earth perhaps, but for now we can be content with just being able to explore and marvel at what motivated people to do the things they did. The remnants of our society may wonder how and why the Eiffel Tower was built and why our efforts weren’t vested in climate change and cleaning up the place we live….

 

Porto, a writer’s inspiration

Porto, long walks, much talking, several glasses of wine and good food, exquisite views and the city that inspired JK Rowling complete with amazing bookstore, students wafting around in togas. Lots of climbing up and down side streets, bridges, watching sunsets and endless views of the ocean.

Inspiring

 

China, heady stuff at the Great Wall, Hua Shan and Xian, Ping Yao and Beijing

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Cinque Terre, Italy

Hiking between tiny villages, a giddy experience walking up the tower of Pisa and a quick look at Milan’s Cathedral.

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Bluebell fever

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The bluebells are still looking good, you have time, the address to use is: Chemin de bois de halle in Braine l’Alleud.

 

Charleroi Safari Fallout

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Interesting effects with HDR – you need to take exactly the same photograph (use a tripod) a couple of times over using different exposures. Use a new-ish version of photoshop to do it or download a programme at http://www.hdrsoft.com, and enhance (or not) using tools on offer. If you have a fancy (read: expensive) camera, apparently the camera can do it!

 

Charleroi Safari

Voted the ugliest town in the world, some entrepreneurs managed to make something of it, offer a safari, albeit haphazard, a very casual set-up, allowing for anything to go wrong, well the attitude almost works but only because the guide was very amiable….Thanks to the photography club http://www.viewfinders.be who arranged the outing.
Mostly I didn’t find Charleroi too ugly, it’s industrial, I come from the Vaal triangle remember, it would remind me of ‘home’ if we didn’t traverse about 50 seasons in a single day, (it’s spring and I’m wearing gloves, got soaked from slipping in the mud) and was alternately rained and hailed upon, city centre looks clean and neat, although the people there do look different, down and out. Mostly the trash was kind of saddening….
My personal favourite, the ghost subway, listed as ‘nutteloze openbaar werken’ (there are loads of them if you do a google search, reminded me of the grand corrupt ‘toilet towns’ in South Africa in the 80’s). This railway was built for the so-called expansion of Charleroi, they expected great things and the railway was built in anticipation, although the actual subway in Charleroi is a dream, very arty. My brain boggles as mostly everything just lies there, unused, buildings and escalators and railway tracks intact, no vagrants have moved in there either…
I tried, in vain to add captions, but imagined stuff like: the patio, the car, the study (easy chair with computer parts), the bedroom…and check out the whacky water feature in someone’s garden, complete with bath, fountain, washing..oh and something not on the photo of course: the sound of dogs barking!
The abandoned mine let our imginations run riot..lots of exploring, this site was also used as a zoo!! Now that does not bear thinking about

 

Photographs from a 19 year old….

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Looking at these photographs from December 1986 on computer blew my mind, mostly the clarity of the photographs (scanned from 26? year old negatives) is amazing, my host family in Paris lent me a camera until I could buy my own, I need to find him and thank him, wow! A jumble of pics from Paris, Versailles, Carcassone, Stonehenge, Stow-on-the-Wold and Oxford…a giant leap into the past where the cars look old and the people young!

 

The Carnival is over…

Some people must be sighing with relief, others look forward to this yearly event with much anticipation, indeed the calender year in Europe is demarcated by festivals, Sint Niklaas on 6 December is a big event in Belgium, Santa cowers before this Spanish might together with black (I didn’t say it) helper and horse, people ask me if they exist in South Africa, are you crazy man! ‘Swarte Piet’ is not only the helper but the ‘court jester’, black because he came from Spain or because he’s full of soot, who knows, tradition has severely mangled this tale. After Christmas (which is a minor) there’s the festival of the Three Kings and some special tart to savour, there is a lucky coin too or bean (Tom Robbin’s Jitterbug Perfume?). Next of course is Carnival, if it’s determined by when the moon was last full, it must surely be pagan! A propos, Pole Space does exciting stuff like decide exactly what the time is and when carnival is exactly! Carnival celebrations are spread out over a month a two to allow each town to revel in festivities and for people to experience more than one adult ‘rag farm’! Brace yourself from February to April, giants, oranges, gilles and more… Mostly it’s an excuse to fulfil your wildest fantasy and kick back… These photos were taken in Halle, I’m not sure what the theme is but I kept expecting to see a rather confused Alice or a rabbit popping out from somewhere…