This Saturday will kick off Christmas celebrations in the Belgian capital with the first installment of Electrabel Nights. A series of weekly shows at the Grand-Place in Brussels open to all.

Electrabel Nights isn’t your standard lighting of a Christmas tree, with a couple of carols and a guest appearance from Santa. Each weekend through to New Year’s Day there will be mind blowing shows from world renowned performance artists, mixing music and lighting with their own special talents to wow you through the festive season.

Some of these acts include gravity defying gymnasts, crystal musicians in costumes of mirrors, fire eaters and moon-climbing acrobats. There will, of course, be a choir on Christmas Eve so if you are planning to spend the Christmas period in Brussels you’ll get your fill of the traditional as well.

The Grand-Place will be well and truly decked out, with a gigantic light sculpture that will send shimmering rays across the entire city. This will surely be one of the Christmas Wonders of Europe in 2011.

The showcase starts on the 26th November with a performance by master jugglers ‘Feeding Fish’. This British troop have performed in over 33 countries, there astounding blend of choreography with pulse raising music and psychedelic lighting will have you entranced as just the beginning of Electrabel Nights.

To get to Brussels in time for Electrabel Nights 2011 a P&O Ferry can take you on the crossing from Hull to Zeebrugge, from which the Country capital is just a short journey.

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Tags: Belgium, Lifestyle, P&O Ferries by Karim Beerahee
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Tomorrow will be the third Thursday of November, and you know that means? Beaujolais Nouveau is here again! And that means the 2011 store of Beaujolais Nouveau wine is soon to be uncorked for the first time…and drunk in abundance.

Traditionally, in the words of Bernard Ludwig Black “Old wine, is good wine” Beaujolais Nouveau, of course, being the exception. This is a youthful vintage bottled after a mere 6-8 weeks, it’s meant for immediate drinking, we’re speculating here but assumedly one winemaker couldn’t handle the wait, sampled it early and thought ‘That ain’t bad’ or at least something similar must have happened.

In France the Beaujolais Nouveau festivities kick off at the stroke of midnight. Towns that have the wine stocked crack into their stores and make merry until late into the night, in Paris restaurants stay open until late, there’s live music and fireworks.

The French government have passed regulations to ensure that the wine is only drunk after midnight on Thursday and the intention is to have the year’s harvest drunk by Christmas – excellent right?

It may be quite short notice for you to get to France in time for the Beaujolais Nouveau celebration, although P&O Ferries can take you across the channel at short notice, but this year’s yield of Beaujolais will still be knocking about well into December so there’s plenty of time to sample this year’s vintage.

P&O Ferries can get you to wine country in France from via the Dover-Calais service, so book now, our hats are off to you if you can get to the Beaujolais Nouveau festivities tomorrow night!

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Tags: France, History, Lifestyle, P&O Ferries by Karim Beerahee
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Next week will see the 19th installment of Crossing Border, a literary and arts festival spanning both Holland and Belgium, tickets are on sale now; we suggest you hurry though this year’s line up is attracting a lot of attention so tickets won’t last.
The Dutch installment of Crossing Border lasts from 16th-19th November and then it moves over to Antwerp over the 19th-20th.
Crossing Border is hosted in multipl locations in The Hague’s Theatre Quarter, comprised of Royal theatre (Koninklijke Schouwburg) and the National Theatre (Nationale Toneel Gebouw). And the festival continues in Antwerp’s Toneelhuis theatre.

This arts festival is true blend of creative disciplines, including film, music art and literature. It encourages flourishing talent, workshops, talks and Q&As are all a part of it. There will also be readings and performances from celebrated artists over the course of the festival.

The lineup has now been confirmed so for more information look at the Crossing Border website, some of the stages that have drawn our attention include this year’s Pulitzer winner Jennifer Egan as well as novelists Ali Smith and Paul Murray. We’re also going to be fighting our way to the front of the crowd to see Laura Marling, Emmy the Great and CAKE performing on stage.

Tickets are selling like hot cakes but there’s still time to get to this amazing festival. P& Ferries is an ideal way to get across the Channel on your way to Holland or Belgium.

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Tags: Belgium, Lifestyle, Netherlands, P&O Ferries by Karim Beerahee
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The early heralds of Christmas are upon us. We’re going to have to ignore Halloween and Firework’s night draws up too many Balotelli allusions so we’re looking ahead to Lille’s Christmas Markets. They start on the 19th of November and are open every day except 25th December right up until New Year’s Eve.

83 Wooden chalets are set up for independent market stalls and all the shops of Lille compete to have unique and exciting window displays. You’ll be able to find all manner of Christmas presents in Lille, whether you’re after something special or on the hunt for a bargain. The Christmas market is set up in the Place Rihour,if you have trouble finding it, it’s the one with the 18 meter high Ferris wheel and ‘Marche De Noel’ written everywhere.

The market is small in comparison to some of the German Christmas markets you may have been to, but the city of Lille has lots to offer. The city has a rich history with signs of original settlement dating well before the Middle Ages. The cities involvement in major French and European events are well recorded here, so it’s certainly worth droping by a museum or exhibition before travelling home.

There are a number of hotels available if you intend to stay the night or wish to make a long weekend of it. P&O Ferries offer a £35 each way fair, which allows you to stay as long as you need – the price includes transport for your car and up to 9 passengers. Alternatively you could make a daytrip of your shopping, the £25 daytrip fair is definitely one of the best deals for getting yourself, your car and your kids on to the continent.

P&O’s channel crossing from Dover to Calais is an hour and half journey, so you might want o book an early one for your trip to Lille’s Christmas markets.

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Tags: France, Lifestyle, P&O Ferries by Karim Beerahee
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If you feel a restive city break on the continent coming up, a journey to Europe’s 3rd richest city Brussels, could be on the cards.
As you may have seen from the iAmsterdam post last week a tourist card is a very economical way to get a feel for a new city and Brussels offer a similar deal.

A Brussels Card can be purchased to last, for up to 72 hours, and will entitle you to free entry to 30 of Brussels’ museums and offer discounts to many more. You’ll also get free transport on underground, bus and tram. For this reason you may want to pre-order your card so it can be picked up upon arrival at either the airport, train station or a Brussels Tourist information office, the details are given to you upon purchase. Alternatively you can just buy your card upon arrival at any of the mentioned locations – but there is a discounted online price.

Your Brussels card will also entitle you to discounted meals and drinks in participating locations as well as certain designer boutiques, exhibitions and attractions.

A P&O Ferry can get you to Zeebrugge, and you can tour through Belgium on your way to Brussels, pick up your card and absorb as much culture as you can take.

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Tags: Belgium, History, Lifestyle, P&O Ferries by Karim Beerahee
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This will be the 20th anniversary of Boulogne-sur-Mer’s annual Herring Festival brought to you by Fishing Animation, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Boulogne-sur-Mer Cote d’Opale.

If you fancy a brisk coastal holiday P&O Ferries Dover to Calais service will leave you just a short journey to Boulogne, easily navigable by public transport, or you can of course take your car along with you.

This is an excellent chance to enjoy fresh herring or kipper, they’re cooked up on huge barbecues, the whole town turns out for this event, with a joyful atmosphere and glass of Beaujolais you can have a fun and tasty trip to northern France this winter.
You’ll be able to sample all the locally caught fish and the many variations of servings; the festival is on over the weekend of the 19th November, so dress warm. Boulogne-sur-Mer really goes all out for the Herring Festival with traditional dress, there will be a musical performed by Dominique Pourre on the Saturday starting at 3. The festival starts at 10 AM so you may want to arrive the night before, the day doesn’t finish until 7pm so there will be plenty of time for you to travel on the Saturday it begins.

P&O Ferries run a frequent Dover to Calais service, from there it is about a half an hours’ drive to Boulogne and all the herring you can eat.

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Tags: France, History, Lifestyle by Karim Beerahee
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If you are planning a trip to the Netherlands we’d recommend you look into purchasing an iAmsterdam card. For those of you intending to do a bit of cultural tourism the iAmsterdam association will really help you make the most of your trip, letting you jump the queues to get in to museums free, discounts on food and free public transport. You can order your iAmsterdam ticket online and get a 5% discount or pick one up in the Netherlands’ capital once you arrive. You have a choice of cards 24 hour, 48 hour and 72 hours, considering that this little card puts the entire capital at your feet.

You’ll have free or discounted access to exhibitions, live music, theatre dance and festivals. They also offer access to the canal hop-on-hop-off Bus, which is a sublime way to traverse the city, making the most of this service will add a leisurely pace to your holiday, honestly who doesn’t love a boat trip?

You can also order family passes so if you want to take the children with you it’s a brilliant means for an inexpensive trip filled with the wonderful sights and curios that only Amsterdam has to offer.

If you take a P&O Ferry to Rotterdam, you can use your iAmsterdam card to get to the capital and then all you have to do is flash it at the entrance of all participating venues for access.

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Tags: History, Lifestyle, Netherlands, P&O Ferries by Karim Beerahee
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The famous Le Grande Rex cinema, in Paris, is opening a special exhibit on the 22nd of October with all the signatures it has gathered from visiting movie stars and singer on display. These include such huge names as Woody Allen, Cesaria Evora, Angelina Jolie and (if it’ll impress you) Justin Bieber.

Etoiles du Rex is an interactive tour (think Universal Studios in Paris). It welcomes all ages and would make a fun day out for the family or anybody with an appreciation of the movie making process. Although the theatre itself is far more impressive to behold at night when the tower is lit up a tour during the day will certainly be well worth it.

The tour is not without its share of surprises, you and your companions can do a bit of acting and be superimposed into movies such like King Kong and you’ll get the chance to purchase your footage on DVD. Your digital tour guide French cartoon star Manissa (styled on Jessica Rabbit), you get to have look through real sets and see animatronic puppets come to life. You’ll get a talk through some of the workings of movies including special effects and sound effects.

For a unique and intriguing tour of European cinema take a P&O Ferry from Dover to Calais, bring the car, bring the kids.

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Tags: France, History, Lifestyle, P&O Ferries by Karim Beerahee
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