It’s time to buy the presents. This energises some people and makes others want to go into hibernation until spring – or at least until after the holidays. These people were our guiding lights as we went into our Gift Guide this year: how do we make holiday shopping less stressful? we asked ourselves. One idea stood out among the rest: stay away from the “shopping centre”. In Flanders, that can mean a mall – like Antwerp’s Wijnegem Shopping Centre or Brussels’ City 2. But that can also mean the dreaded “shopping street”. You know what we mean.
This week, on 7 December, sees the start of a new season of De slimste mens ter wereld (The Smartest Person in the World), which is guaranteed not only to keep the nation from staying out too late for the next few weeks but also to harvest countless column inches in every Flemish newspaper, with daily blow-by-blow accounts of the previous evening’s events.
Endangered it may well be, or what’s left of it. After examining it on the Save the Sanatorium website, I decided I had to see it firsthand. The address is more than a little vague – about 20 kilometres southeast of Brussels, just beyond Tombeek. When I stopped for directions at a friterie, they said I should go up the hill when I saw the sign for Acacia, a rest home.
Although you’ll find plenty of chances to cook and eat, the Week van de Smaak is particularly impressive for the sheer number of genres: film, exhibitions, readings, walks and tours inundate all of your senses, bringing every aspect of food to sensual life.
Although the programme is about as diverse as it gets, there are two facts that require your attention: Turkey is the guest country this year, and Leuven is 2009’s “city of flavour”. This gives you two convenient ways to choose from the massive schedule of events: go to Leuven, and eat Turkish (see sidebars).
Joker’s approach is not that of a typical travel agency. For starters, the journeys are adventurous, to say the least. Groups of travellers set off to discover little-known areas of Ethiopia, to name just one of their recently added destinations. “The idea is that people travel in small groups to be able to really experience the local culture, instead of just watching it from a tourist distance,” says Baeten.
Joker also embraced the concept of ethical travelling long before it became a hype. The agency won the travel award for sustainable tourism two years ago.
In truth, many businesses were bracing themselves for the opposite, fearing that trade would plummet in the wake of the economic downturn. But the verdict of hotelier Marc Decoussemaeker-Dhooge sums up the mood: “It´s been an absolutely great summer.”
One of the reasons, of course, was the soaring temperature which meant that record numbers of people, including Dutch and Germans, flocked to the coast during July, August and well into September.
Belgium has a wealth of indoor climbing and bouldering gyms in all five provinces, plus a number of classic gyms that have climbing walls. With cold, short days drawing near, it’s a good time to head inside to get your blood pumping doing this hugely addictive and surprisingly popular sport.
Why it’s so popular
That’s how it struck us when my family visited Natur-Natur recently, and it’s how it must have struck Bart Smulders eight years ago. Smulders was then running an events organisation business, explains his wife, Evi De Pré, when they moved to Korbeek-Dijle, which sits in the Dijle valley near Leuven.
Cars will be banned and citizens encouraged to use alternative transport such as buses, trams, bicycles and even their feet. There will be street parties, horse parades, live music and a host of other activities which would all be impossible with cars on the roads.
Previous years saw a holiday atmosphere descend across the cities as people took to the streets en masse, going for a bicycle ride along the car-free boulevards - “I love zipping up the middle of the streets,” said cycling enthusiast Paul Kaye – or for a meander across usually perilous streets.
During the tournament, which began on 5 September, the team is competing in four of the 20 events: beach volleyball, table tennis, swimming and bowling. All those taking part are either deaf or hard of hearing. Some of the other events in the Summer Deaflympics are badminton, karate, cycling and football.
In existence for an astonishing 85 years, it’s the only global sporting event for deaf people, and it’s the first time it’s being held in Asia. More than 5,000 athletes and staff from 81 countries are participating this year, the largest in the history of Deaflympics.
Flanders Today is a 
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