Tour de Benelux

I am back from my 5th MBA residency. This time I traveled to Utrecht, De Ruwenberg, Tilburg, and Bruxelles.

Tour de Benelux without Lux.

It was great to meet with the class. And I really liked the lecturers this time.

The first week in Utrecht and De Ruwenberg and Tilburg was very busy with lots of late nights to finish assignments. And I didn’t really have any time to explore.

Bruxelles
It was fun walking around Bruxelles again. 17 years after I had studied there for a year. Although speaking French took getting used to. I don’t switch easily between languages.

Lots of good food. I can recommend:

Tried this patisserie on Grand Sablon. The sweets were great but the service was very don’t carish.

There has been an explosion of chocolate shops in the downtown area. So many. One lecturer recommended Marcolini, while another suggested Frederic Bloondeel near the Sainte Catherine church.

Apparently Belgian chocolate contains less sugar than Swiss chocolate and it is softer (i.e more conching is applied).

All the Belgians we asked were in favor of separating Flanders and Wallonia into 2 separate states.

I went for a walk thru Schaerbeek where I stayed when I was a poor student.

The cinema was right across from the hotel. The same cinema where I watched Schindler’s List 16 to 17 years ago. Watched a couple of movies including an Argentinian film called El secreto de sus ojos. It was in Spanish with French and Dutch sub-titles. Excellent film. Category: must see.

I’ve always wondered why so many tourists travel to Bruxelles. I guess it offers good food, interesting architecture, lots of museums and it’s probably less expensive than Paris. By the end of my stay I was nearly persuaded to go back for a long weekend…

Some wild snapshots in the true Chiperoni tradition:

The flight attendant on Saturday’s 18:35 Swiss flight from Brussels to Zurich was very friendly. Thank you. It helps.

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