The Ginger Diaries
Europe
Apple Picking in Haspengouw

Apple Picking in Haspengouw

According to Statbel, the Belgian statistical office, there are currently 11.376.070 people living on the 30.528 KM² piece of land known as Belgium. Said little piece of land is divided into 10 provinces. And today I am taking you on a day trip to my favorite one: Limburg! Or as we Antwerpians like to call it “The Limburg”. I am imagining the Limburgers reading this collectively clicking away from my blog now. More specifically I’m taking you along on a field trip …
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Travel
A Visit to The Zwin, Belgium

A Visit to The Zwin, Belgium

On a cold morning in February, my boyfriend an I decided to drive to the Belgian sea side for a day. We never go to the sea side. There’s nothing to do when it rains and it’s bustling with tourists as soon as the sun decides to peek from behind the clouds. Add to that the infamous Belgian traffic and you get a recipe for “nah, let’s just go somewhere else”. However, there’s a nature …
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Belgium
Docks Bruxsel Food Court & White Cinema

Docks Bruxsel Food Court & White Cinema

It’s not every day that a new shopping center opens its doors in teeny tiny Belgium, so when that happens you know everyone is going to be all about it! The buzz around Docks Bruxsel hasn’t calmed down since its opening in late 2016 and I had been dying to pay a visit. When my blogger buddy Eline asked me if I wanted to join her for the blogger presentation of the food court I jumped for joy! To Brussels we went! …
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Belgium
The Tall Ships Race 2016

The Tall Ships Race 2016

A few weeks ago the Tall Ships Race took place in Antwerp and while the boats are well on their way to Lisbon by now, I still wanted to share a few of the snaps I took. My boyfriend and I met up with friends for dinner at Balls’n’Glory and took a detour to visit the TSR along the way. We saw the Tall Ships prepare for sail for the first time in 2010 and they left a might impression on us. …
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Travel
Flowering Bluebells In Hallerbos

Flowering Bluebells In Hallerbos

Years and years ago I made a bucket list of all the places I wanted to visit in Belgium. To this day, not many items have been scratched off, aside from exploring Brussels (which I’ve been doing lots of lately!). Not too far from Brussels is Halle, well-known for it’s beautiful Hallerbos. The Hallerbos is a forest that turns into a fairy tale-like scene every Spring. Shades of white and yellow slowly turn into shades of purple as daffodils and white …
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Belgium
Celebrating the Belgian “Week of the Woods”

Celebrating the Belgian “Week of the Woods”

Vandaag keren we eventjes terug naar de roots van deze blog. Terug naar een tijd waarin ‘Photography’ nog een aparte categorie in mijn menuutje was en de experimentjes met mijn toen gloednieuwe Nikon D3100 nog niet anoniem verdwenen waren in de grote nietszeggende noemer ‘Lifestyle’ (eerlijk is eerlijk). Terug naar een duister, ver verleden waarin ik nog in het Nederlands schreef en dat met zoveel fouten deed dat ik er een grammar nazi volgeling aan overhield. Een verleden zo duister en …
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Travel
A Roadtrip To Luxemburg

A Roadtrip To Luxemburg

After our exams in June, my friend K and I got the crazy idea to drive to the south of the country and just see where we’d end up. K had almost never been there and had made a short bucket list. I on the other hand know the region well and told her I could guide her around. My grandparents have a caravan in Trois-Ponts and all we knew was that we were going to sleep there. On our first night we …
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Travel
Open garden days at Hex Castle

Open garden days at Hex Castle

      The Flemish province of Limburg is to me, without doubt, the most beautiful of all. Spread unevenly through  the hilly landscape are large estates and castles, such as the beautiful domain of Hex. After exploring the Haspengouw region in May, I subscribed to a newsletter to inform me about other fun events and the first email I received included an invitation to the open garden days. I’m a girl and I love castles, so I knew I had to …
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Travel
Christmas in Brussels

Christmas in Brussels

Brussels is a city that really had to grow on me. With Antwerp no more than a single bus ride away, I too often left Brussels aside. It was that city we always would always visit on school field trips, but apart our one hour of free play inside the natural history museum we never got to do much exploring. It’s only since the start of this school year that Brussels has become a favorite one-day getaway location for us. Only 40 minutes …
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Travel
The Antwerp City Gardens

The Antwerp City Gardens

              You might remember my post about saturation (cleverly called “I can’t get no saturation”) last year, where I posted a pathetic two photos of a small trip we made to the city gardens. Shame on me. So when we were in Antwerp to clean up K’s apartment last week, I decided it was time to get the camera out again and see how my beloved flowers were doing. To say that they …
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Travel
Beautiful Haspengouw

Beautiful Haspengouw

    Imagine a land, with nothing but blooming trees and little lambs frolicking through immense fields of dandelions and grass. Imagine sunshine and happy faces. Kids with ice cream on the tips of their nose, running around you while you’re trying to keep your balance so you don’t drop your camera. Imagine Belgium. Last week I was watching the weather forecast, a rarity, when the weatherman mentioned Haspengouw, the fruit region in the east of Belgium. He had …
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