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Showing posts with the label Metropole hotel

Blogging Anniversary - 10 years

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A while ago I checked when I did my first blog post, in order to celebrate with an anniversary post. Well, that day came and went without any reaction from me. Better late than never, so here a reminder of my very first blog post from 24 October 2012.  The book was New Finnish Grammar  by Diego Marani. Marani is an Italian novelist, translator and newspaper columnist. While working as a translator for the European Union he invented a language ‘Europanto’ which is a mixture of languages and based on the common practice of word-borrowing usage of many EU languages. It was a suitable book to start with, being a book about letters, languages and memories. With a beautiful prose, the novel went directly to my heart.  "One night at Trieste in September 1943 a seriously wounded soldier is found on the quay. The doctor, of a newly arrived German hospital ship, Pietri Friari gives the unconscious soldier medical assistance. His new patient has no documents or anything that can ide...

Brussels and its history (part I)

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Times pass quickly and I just realise that I have been living in Brussels for 17 years, and I can't boost that I know a lot about the city of Brussels. Being residents in a suburb to Brussels, we hardly venture into the city, except for working, and luckily for me, not anymore! I have therefore decided to take a day every week, or every other week, depending on my schedule, to go down-town and look into the history, discover the nice, old, small streets, cafés, restaurants, bars and all the other things I have missed during the years. I need help of course. It comes in the form of a book called " Brussels for Pleasure, Thirteen walks through the historic city " by Derek Blyth. Derek is a former journalist and has spent many years in the Netherlands and Belgium, and written several books on the art, architecture and history of these places. He has a web-site, My Secret Brussels , where you can read more interesting things about the city, and also join one of his gui...