With public parking and spacious guest rooms, the Hotel Keyserlei offers a convenient base ... more
for your city trip to Antwerp.The simple, elegant rooms are all provided with comfortable box-spring beds, a fridge and a nice bath. Situated close to the Centra...
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Price is per double room per night and may vary depending on date booked...
Advantages: Nice bright conference room Disadvantages: Desperately in need of refurb and NEW reception staff
The Ramada in Antwerp is based in a rather striking mirrored building but delivers rather less than the sparkling exterior would suggest. I've stayed there several times and always come away thinking that just a little more effort could make this into a pretty nice hotel but I can't imagine that happening, mostly due to the rather dour attitude of the staff.
Customer Service? What's that?
On my most recent visit, I arrived by taxi from Brussels airport, squeezed myself and my wheelie-bag through the rotating door, was as always impressed by the nice looking lobby and then brought quickly back down to earth by the utter indifference of the reception staff. I waited for a ridiculously long time whilst the receptionist held a convoluted conversation with an elderly lady in front of me. Despite leaving the desk and popping into ...
Advantages: If you want mussels there's plenty of choice at Bacino Disadvantages: Think twice about trying 5 different types
. On my last visit they told me they will soon be moving back to the UK so I'll be able to see them more often but it means my future visits to Antwerp for work will see me sitting sad and lonely in my hotel room. Since this was our last opportunity to fulfil our search for that very Belgian classic dish, mussels and fries, we headed into the city to look for dinner.
Our previous mussel hunt in December had been unsuccessful. Lured into a restaurant by the promise of shellfish we were disappointed to find a mussel-free zone. So this time we took no chances and chose Bacino, a restaurant where Katya had eaten mussels several times before and where they specialise in these little critters. I'm not frightened of seafood but I do think that mussels are best eaten in restaurants that turn over a lot of them and are used to dealing with these ...
Advantages: Interesting look into top-level cricket, good coaching pointers too Disadvantages: Sometimes suffers from being too defensive
England's Ashes win of 2005 is the highpoint of English cricket so far this century, and probably the most memorable test series since Botham's Ashes in 1981.
The man who plotted the 2-1 win over the Aussies, coach Duncan Fletcher, enjoyed an eight-year term as England's main man (outlasting several England football managers during that time), until his resignation at the end of the 2007 World Cup.
Fletcher was never the most dynamic character and clearly didn't enjoy dealing with the press or taking centre stage, hence the title and a suitably 'undercover' picture on the sleeve for his autobiography, 'Behind The Shades'.
THE BOOK - BACKGROUND DETAILS
Co-written by Steve James, the ex-Glamorgan skipper turned writer (he assisted Fletcher in his previous book on the Ashes success), I'm reviewing the hardback version of this ...
