Brussels – Yeri Tiete

It's Time to Replace Urban Delivery Vans

Yeri Tiete — Mon, 25 Sep 2023 01:48:18 +0200

Car-centric cities

Yeri Tiete — Fri, 10 Jun 2022 21:08:00 +0200

Having been fortunate enough to have seen quite a few parts of the world, and having been in Singapore for 6 years now -- I've been able to start comparing places and looking at the "where next" question.

With Ila on the way, both as a parent and if I were a kid still -- where would I want to grow up?

Growing up wasn't a fan of Grimbergen because it was quite dull (but then again, it was very close to Brussels, and easily connected to Antwerp): I wanted a city, and that's why I moved to Antwerp (and later Singapore).

Yet, now that I also value quality of life, Singapore is not very high on that list either. There's an insane pressure on kids to be top of class and to perform, limited to no safe outdoor activities unless you live in a place with a pool/tennis court (everything else feels fake, you can't get dirty as a kid), the lack of ownself transport methods (bike, skateboard, etc) to go to school/friends (public transport rocks, but that's never as convenient as a bike for short distances).

I'm currently having mixed feelings between the big house in a quiet neighbourhood (not Suburbia, but something more like Finland/Norway outside of cities, with a forest, next to your home) vs. being in a city like Copenhagen.

While I would love to being closer to nature, I'd probably miss the benefits of the city life (like being close to an airport -- we need to visit Belgium and Singapore after all, take-away food, quick and easy shopping, more friends/school options, a cinema, etc).

I wouldn't mind this being my daily view. Lapland, Finland.

By the way, Johan has a good blog about living off-grid -- which is a bit too extreme for me.

A city like Amsterdam or Copenhagen is probably a safer choice: less green, but easy and safe to get around as a pedestrian/biker, while still being in relative distance of nature or an escape out of the city.

Copenhagen: beautiful, individual freedom, tons of culture

And no, I won't head back to Brussels; it's a terrible for kids. It's the wild west, where cars rule and the police won't act.

Ghent and Antwerp are investing in car-free zones and making it pedestrian friendly, but I hate Antwerp's lack of greenery (many beautiful trees are cut, everything is stone and concrete and feels like death. Moreover, it's one big traffic jam due to lack of a sustainable solution to keep the cars out).

Antwerp Kaai: Imagine summer + global warming. Scorching death. Where are the trees?

Oh, and I got myself a Halfbike. So I'll definitely be looking at places with biking lanes. ;)

Continuous Sidewalks

Yeri Tiete — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 11:32:25 +0200

Living in Singapore -- a city extremely unfriendly towards bicycles and pedestrians (to the point they banned e-scooters because they had to blame someone for the accidents, and it couldn't be the cars) I started paying attention to urban design in Europe and started noticing the little things I wouldn't pay attention before.

Having just come back from Belgium, Amsterdam and Copenhagen it's great seeing a video pointing out the differences and how it all works.

Also, very excited that Belgium is investing in massive "biking highways" (as a result of many cities going car-free in a few years): big investments in clear, wide cycling lanes and making. We'll hopefully be more like the Netherlands (which, with the massive amount of e-bikes is really needed).

(Source)

SIN - DXB - BRU

Yeri Tiete — Sat, 11 Feb 2017 01:20:54 +0100

Emirates. Finally. Been trying so long to fly with them. And in business class. :)

1x A380 and 3x B777.

I’ll be around for a few drinks in Belgium !

Surreal

Yeri Tiete — Wed, 23 Mar 2016 00:29:13 +0100

Grounded flights here.

Facebook Safety Check

Yeri Tiete — Tue, 22 Mar 2016 18:31:17 +0100

Never thought I’d ever have to mark myself safe …

Parking 58

Yeri Tiete — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 14:22:48 +0100

Interparking’s Parking 58

Life of a cat

Yeri Tiete — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 11:14:37 +0100

@FlyingBrussels' Movember

Yeri Tiete — Fri, 08 Nov 2013 10:00:01 +0100

Source + Tweet.

Coma at Libertine Supersport

Yeri Tiete — Mon, 04 Nov 2013 03:01:11 +0100

10 minuten zen, aangeboden door onze vijver

Yeri Tiete — Thu, 04 Jul 2013 12:00:41 +0200

Sunset at the Office

Yeri Tiete — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 18:57:23 +0200

Eurostar cheatness

Yeri Tiete — Sun, 27 May 2012 18:10:59 +0200

Did a comparison with a browser set to UK and one to Belgium on eurostar.com.

If you live in Belgium, you get free NMBS tickets (from and to Brussels South).

However, when you choose UK, you get an option to either choose Brussels South or "Any Belgian Station":

If we compare the prices for 2nd of June (Friday) we see a £6 difference between Brussels and "Any Belgian City".

The first images shows "Brussels South" as end stop:

The second image shows any stations:

But now for the interesting part... What if we compare Euro versus Pounds?

Here are the two screenshots, one in Euro and one in Pounds (to Brussels South, NOT to "Any Belgian Station"):

So let's compare the ride at 06:50 in non flex (98,45 EUR or £89,50): 89,50 pounds equals to about 111,70 EUR... Interesting. That's a 13 EUR difference.

Let's take the last one in non flex (19h04, 169,50 EUR or £154,50): 154,50 pounds equals to about 192,80 EUR. That's a 23 EUR difference...

Now, I do know the Eurostar Plus programme rewards points after either 300 euro or 300 pounds (~€ 374) spent on the site. The reward is a 20 euro or 20 pound (~€ 25) voucher respectively. But I guess it's already quite clear that, when paying on Eurostar.com with pounds, you lose. Big time.

I so far also haven't been able to find a way on the site to pick another country as origin except by deleting cookies or using another browser altogether.

I also didn't compare Paris/France with London or Brussels with Lille/France, as I never actually use that route.

Now, there's one last thing I had to check (something I already noticed last year but didn't really pay too much attention to): the price difference between adult and youth.

Both browsers are set to Belgium/English:

The result? No difference in price whatsoever.

Click on the images for a bigger picture.

Seniors? Same thing. No difference.

What about children (<4y)? Well, as it's impossible for them to travel alone, I tested it with 2 adults versus 1 adult and 1 child. Here I finally noticed a difference, between 30 to 40 euro.

As a return ticket usually is around 190 euro, and a plane ticket by Brussels Airlines around 210-250 euro, I'm quite tempted to fly when the price difference is minor.

The only thing that's holding me back (except for the price difference on that particular date of June 1st) is the security check at Heathrow and Brussels Airlines (Miles & More) being somewhat less flexible (as in, no flight every hour). But they do seem to fly Friday evening to London, and come back to Brussels on Sunday evening (that's the route I'm looking for).

And there is still British Airlines as well (One World) which I didn't check out in details yet; but as far as I know they tend to be somewhat more expensive.

Brussels Express

Yeri Tiete — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:22:27 +0200

Sun

Yeri Tiete — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 19:10:56 +0200

Aint it a beauty?

View on Flickr →

Flickr set.

Brosella today!

Yeri Tiete — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 12:00:20 +0200

Another weekend of Brosella, starting today. Facebook and Last.fm page are up.

Be sure to check out my free FON WiFi coverage and drop some feedback. ;)

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