OUR STAY AT SIR PLANTIN

Whilst in Antwerp we had the pleasure of staying at the Sir Plantin hotel in downtown Antwerp, just a 10 minute walk away from Centraal station. On arrival we were greeted by the hotel manager, Wim, who filled us in on where the best eateries were in the area – which did not disappoint.

The quirky boutique hotel designed with contemporary suites dominated by a huge tudor painting on one wall of the room – ours had old queen Liz looking down upon us in shades of green, whilst the boys next door had Anne Boleyn in orange. I loved the contrast between the dominant artwork and the subtle minimal furnishings; the bathroom was tiled all in black with white highlights, whilst the rest of the hotel was a mushroom grey with black furnishings. The paintings continued throughout the hotel but were chopped up and put together, a selection of hands on one wall, faces on the other.

Other than the decor, one of the highlights was the breakfast bar from 7am, where you’ll be offered waffles and coffee or can help yourself to hot food and pastries. Such a perfect start to the day! To end the day you can wind up at the bar, along with your complimentary drink ticket you receive on arrival. There’s also a free minibar in each room with a selection of water, fizzy drinks and beer.

It’s worth a big mention for all bloggers out there that there is free high speed internet. Always the nightmare of any journalist, having to fork out money for internet that can’t even handle it, but at Sir Plantin the internet was amazing! 

Thank you so much to Wim for having us, and making our Antwerp trip that much more enjoyable.

NEXT STOP, ANTWERP

It’s amazing to think that in the same time it takes me to travel to my hometown in south west, England, I could also be out the channel tunnel and half way across Europe; via the Eurostar, not only do you not have to go through all the rigmarole of weight limit baggage issues, but its also greener and faster than flying. On Tuesday Alexxsia, Matthew, Michael and I boarded the first Eurostar to Brussels filled with excitement, with the all stations ticket you can connect from Brussels to over 200 other destinations – and we were headed straight to Antwerp, my favourite city! We had a pretty extravagant journey, celebrating Michael’s birthday with champagne and stocking up on ham and cheese croissants, whilst Lexxi snapped away on her iPad. I love that last shot of Lexxi and Michael struggling with all their excess purchases, haha, I can’t wait to share the rest of my holiday with you!

A huge thank you to Lucy at Eurostar for making the journey possible!

It’s easy to reach Antwerp with Eurostar. With one easy connection in Brussels, passengers will arrive in Antwerp less than three hours from London St Pancras International. Eurostar offers return fares to Antwerp from just £80. Eurostar also offers connecting fares from more than 200 stations in the UK. For more information or to book, visit eurostar.com or call 08432 186 186.

LE GIVEAWAY

 It’s that magical lovey dovey day today (grooaaaaan) and I’ve team up with Sunglass Shop and Le Specs to give one of my lucky readers this pair of Le Specs Runaways that I was loving on the blog a few weeks back!

Everyone knows sunglasses are the chicest winter accessory, even Karen Walker was giving away free pairs at her AW show yesterday and these can be your for free too! All you have to do is follow Sunglass shop on Twitter and Facebook and leave a comment here with your name and email.

I’ll be running the giveaway for a week before announcing the winner, good luck!

HOTEL BLOOM

Whilst staying in Brussels for the Modo Parcours, I was lucky enough to stay in the Hotel Bloom; from only 69 euros a night the rooms were beautiful, each room had a unique hand painted design of it’s own by a young european artist and overlooked the city centre. The trip was pretty full on, so I was happy to be able to kick back and relax with a bath and a new copy of Encens magazine on the final night. The breakfasts were out of this wold too, you got to poach your own eggs to avoid any of those rubbery disasters you spy at most breakfast buffets, also a range of fruits and yoghurts as well as pastries and cereals; seriously the perfect start to every day.

Thanks Hotel Bloom for having me and to Elke from Modo Brussels for organising the trip! 

MELANCHOLIA

 I wanted to blog about this film as soon as I’d seen it, the most beautiful and utterly terrifying film of the year. The sound track by Wagner grips you all the way through, right to the terrifying end until you are left with silence and emptiness. I had nightmares that night that this was my life and my slow realisation that I was going to die. I think the best films are the ones that get inside your head; I think it’s far more terrifying than any horror film, because this would be something that no one could change and something that could just happen.. Anyway, I urge everyone to go and see it because it’s so thought evoking and beautiful, I think you leave slightly changed.

FIRST CLASS TRAVEL

I was pretty excited to be traveling on the Eurostar, seeing as the previous week I’d taken the all night bus to Antwerp to save cash; consequences are it ages you 40 years. Not only that, but we’d be travelling first class, a completely new experience for me and one that I wish to continue. The journey was two hours long, we were fed and watered very well; with a mini trio of smoked trout and cucumber salad, leek and potato quiche and apple and blackberry crumble with cinnamon custard; all served cold meaning fresher with more flavour. It was the perfect start to our trip to Brussels!