Not just beer and chocolate

Greetings from Brussels, my new hometown!

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I finally made my way to see a cyclo-cross race live for the first time in my life. We headed to Oudenaarde, where the peloton of road cycling's spring classics attack the famous cobblestoned climbs every year. This event was called The Koppenbercross because it's close to the Koppenberg climb. Wout Van Aert won and Sven Nys was second. Both are Belgians like almost 50% of all riders, it truly is a Belgian sport.  For a road cycling enthusiast the cyclo-cross track and the speed of the competitors was an eye-opening experience, you really CAN ride a road bike-ish bicycle downhill on grass and mud and corner succesfully! Again, good times in the Flemish Ardennes and Oudenaarde.

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Hello, long time no see. Here's some shots from our recent trips to Ghent. And by the way, the sun always shines there.

Coming up, some pictures from a cyclo-cross race called the Koppenbergcross...

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Now that fall leaves are dropping, it's nice to look back at last spring and all those bike races. I found a clip of Eurosport coverage of La Fleche Wallonne where I can be found on the top right corner of the screenshot, balancing on a wall. Here's a photo from the same exact situation trough my lens.

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Dug these photos from the archives. Taken in Dublin and Clare county this May of June, can't remember. Enjoy!

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We got a chance to do some hiking in the Bavarian Alps in Southern Germany and also visit the historical city by the Danube, Regensburg. Our hiking paths took us all the way to Austria. Clean mountain air, peaceful forests, good food and friends = excellent week end and good times!

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Here's couple of pictures from Auschwitz 1 & 2. The last two pictures are taken from Krakow where they shot the labour camp scenes for The Schindler's List movie.

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We visited Krakow last week end and we were instantly blown away by this beautiful city. It has tons of history and culture but it's not too snobby or touristy. It has the buzz of a big city but there's still plenty of empty and quiet places to enjoy.

From cool riverside beaches to the streets of the old jewish ghetto to the lively Kazimierz district, this city has got many different faces. These photos were taken only during our two first days there, but you can already see the diversity and atmosphere of the place. I'll be posting more photos of Krakow soon.

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This is what one of our neighbor towns, Leuven looks like on a saturday afternoon. When the town gets rid of all the university students on fridays, there's plenty of empty streets to explore. By the way, Leuven is the home of Stella Artois beer. The top picture is taken from the Great Beguinage of Leuven. It's built in the 13th century and is one of the Unesco world heritage places. Now mostly professors and students of the Leuven university live there. The red carpet was for the wedding ceremony that took place in the church at that time.

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More Finnish land- and mindscapes (except for the second one, that's from Norway) from this summer.

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Summer is over and I'm back in Brussels. Here are some photos I took in Finland this summer. Their common theme is water and that's something that I took for granted before. But now that I live here in Belgium, it's something that I really miss.

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A dream day for a cycling fan. Watching Thomas Voeckler blast by you in a solo breakaway in The Tour De France is something special.

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We found a nice home decoration / furniture shop in Antwerp. The owner said, that when thinking of a name for the shop, she randomly landed her finger to the world map and Espoo, Finland was the result!

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When France and Belgium (look at the photo above) got eliminated in the World Cup we decided to go and visit the second biggest city in Belgium, Antwerp. It really is a big city and iy feels like we only scratched the surface of this beautiful place. We definitely have to come back here again.

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Some random photos from the last two weeks...

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Belgium vs USA. The 2-0 goal in extra time.

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The Stadium Roi Baudouin in Brussels shows all team Belgium's world cup games on two big screens and has capacity for 20 000 people. We were there amongst the crazy fans to watch the 2-1 victory over USA.

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We spent the midsummer-weekend (fete de la Saint-Jean) in the Ardennes in Southern Belgium. As you can see from the photos the place, the nature and the weather were all spot on. There was also a sauna!