Bruged... but unbowed

 

Published in The Northern Echo Friday 20th July 2012. View clip here.

Catharine Hewitson finds the, initially, hidden glories of Bruges are as tasty as Belgium's famous chocolate industry

IF I’m honest, when I arrived in Bruges I felt a little cheated. My guidebooks referred to the Belgian city as ‘picturesque’ and ‘quaint’; ‘the Venice of the North’. Even In Bruges, a black comedy about hit-men, portrayed the city in a fairytale light.

The coach transfer from the port of Zeebrugge dropped my boyfriend and I at the station on the south-west perimeter of the city. I had built up expectations of stepping into a medieval time-warp, but there didn’t seem to be a turret or cobblestone in sight.

Flight of Fancy

Published in The Northern Echo January 30th 2010 - view clip here

Catharine Hewitson nips over to Amsterdam for a short break.

Last month, my friend and I decided we needed a short break. We came up with the following destination wish-list: a European city with good food and drink, architecture and culture. With flights from Durham Tees Valley airport practically our on doorsteps, we chose Amsterdam, and booked a B&B through Easytobook.com.

Hitotoki Paris

Published on the launch of Hitotoki Paris, July 28th 2008

I had been alone in Paris for thirteen days. It took a dreary, uneventful morning for it to finally sink in that my family were hundreds of miles away. Although my first couple of weeks in the City of Light had been a song and a dance, I was craving human contact and conversation.

Like any other day, I left my little apartment on the rue de la Verrerie to spend the day with my sole companion: Paris. Turning onto the busy rue de Rivoli, I crossed over, intending to head to the quai but instead of trying to fight the traffic running around the Hotel de Ville, I turned left onto the place Saint-Gervais.