f it’s your first time in Norway, chances are you would want to visit the places that everybody is talking about. And what’s more popular in Norway nowadays than Nærøyfjord, the place that inspired the hit Disney movie Frozen?

ruges or Brugge, depends on what language you are speaking, prides itself in being a well-preserved medieval town and one of the many Unesco’s World Heritage site in Belgium. Stripped off tourists that floods Brugge everyday, it can actually be just a ghost town, as if time stood still in there and you can expect to meet a man in cloak and a woman in kirtle while taking a midnight walk in one of its dark alleyways. Probably that’s why director Martin McDonagh chose it as the setting of his dark comedy film In Bruges.

otterdam has this not-so-little secret spot for families, hidden in one of its swanky neighbourhood, Hillegersberg. While I have frequented this area to dine out, I only discovered Plaswicjkpark of late. Because why else would one go here if one doesn’t have an offspring?

was in Mechelen for the weekend for one of those spontaneous trips you book in the middle of a difficult week. Some personal issues have been bogging me down for months and I thought a weekend away from child and work would do me good.

In the summer 2010 I went to Italy for my birthday sojourn, a tradition I’ve started when I moved to the Netherlands. Wanting to escape crowded Venice, I stayed at Lido Island, about 15 minutes away by vaporetto (water bus). Much as I wanted to stay at the Grand Hotel de Bains, the famous setting of Death in Venice, my budget settled me instead in a rather dingy hotel called Vime Byron, located few meters away from the beach.