Tag: Travel

The unlikely story of the village of Redu

The unlikely powerhouse in publishing and literary circles counts 24 secondhand bookshops, a papermaker, a book binder, a book charity organisation and dozens of smaller artisan shops all linked, in one way or the other, to books.

9 weekend retreats to do in Belgium

From yoga castles to wooden cabins, we scoured the country in search of the best places to unwind and relax.

10 of Belgium’s best weekend getaways

From Liège and Namur to Antwerp, Ghent and Brussels, we unveil 10 of our favourite quirky Belgian weekend getaways.

Bag packers for your summer adventures

We've stockpiled a stylish selection of goodies to get you prepped for your summer holidays. We've thought of everything - travel bag, bumbag, desert boots, the obligatory sunnies... to help you pack up before you skip off.

Travel photography part four: Maxim Leurentop’s Germany

Last but not least in our series on travel photography, we're off to Trippstadt, West Germany with photographer Maxim Leurentop.

Travel photography part one: Sara Todd’s Las Vegas

Part of our travel month, we've handpicked four photography series that made us dream of escapes and adventures on the road. We begin with Antwerp-based photographer Sara Todd's travels from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.

Travel photography part two: Britt & Paul’s trans-siberian travels

In part two of our series on travel photography, photographers Britt & Paul take us across Russia on the trans-siberian railway

The best travel spots in Belgium

This month is all about travel at The Word, and we've been busy touring the country trying and testing Belgium's best and most original getaway spots, from habitable Trojan horses to design hotels and the loveliest of bed & breakfasts.

The best travel blogs in Belgium

The holiday season is upon us and we reckon you deserve a break. To get into the swing of things we've got an online travel special for the month of June, starting with our pick of Belgium's best travel blogs.

Snowballs

A 250-strong collection of snow globes that first came to our attention for our white album and, due to popular demand, even made it to our white album release party.

The shelf: Shedding light

Chinese living, the most dangerous city in America, the disappearance of landmarks in Colorado, colour-coded foreplay and a personal history of the household. Five fine art and photography books that'll see you through the winter months.

Photography: Winners of the Nikon Press Photo Awards 2010

Press photography is that oft-forgotten corner in the world of professional photography that really never gets a lot of attention. It doesn’t exactly have the same cachet as fine art photography, nor does it have the glamour and sparkle of, say, fashion photography. One thing you cannot deny, though, is that it has a sense […]

At the turn of the millennium

Can’t see the forest for the trees

The thing about forests is the inherent mystery they exude. There’s something eerie about them, ghost-like even. They don’t bother nobody, if nobody bothers them. Well, recently, that propensity to keep a low-profile went up in smoke, literally. Raging fires surrounded Moscow, with forests showing the type of damage they were capable of doing. You […]

When the East is in the house

Everyone should drive through Eastern Europe at least once in his or her lifetime. And it’s one trip we recommend to do while the remains of communism are still visible. In Romania, the ruins of Ceauşescu’s factories and silo’s are widely spread across the country, often interconnected by meandering rusty pipelines. It is nothing short […]

With an eye firmly set on Russia

With our Russian Issue hitting the streets on Monday, a little teaser series courtesy of photographer Veerle Frissen.

Ik hou van Charleroi

Our relationship with Charleroi and its locals was left somewhat shaky after a feature we ran in last year’s Heritage Issue. Conceived as a tribute to the city’s industrial heritage, the piece garnered its fair share of controversy and even a few angry comments. We felt we owed the city a fresh new look and […]

The Special Showstoppers: The Goods

We touch upon all aspects of design – from creation through to completion and reparation – in this month’s selection of special show stealers. We’ve got the software to prototype it, the loungechair to ponder it, the stool to rock it out, the plasticine to fix it, the mirror to have a final look at […]

Label legend

Profiling Rough Trade had been on our wish list for quite a while. Call us uninspired or lazy, but doing it for our Rough Edges Issue felt like an obvious no-brainer, or just an excuse to day trip our way over to London. We hopped on the 8.05 Eurostar and started with the label’s headquarter, […]

Scanning Arequipa

With only three days to go until our Rough Edges Issue comes out, we thought it fitting to run with a series that’s been tantalising our rough-sides so much we actually featured it in September’s edition at the last minute. Yves Decamps’ Scanning Arequipa series documents his four-year stay in Peru, where he settled with […]

Brussels: where we sleep

Whether visiting town for a weekend or simply seeking a change of scenery for the night, below are some of our favourite alternatives to the rather impersonal globalized five star lodging chains. Hotel Pantone Topping our list is the recently opened and buzz-worthy Hotel Pantone. Designed by Michel Penneman and architect Olivier Hannaert, the spanking […]

Brussels: where we drink

Together with the start of the summer comes the cringe-inducing ‘city guides’ we’ve all grown accustomed to, from American broasheets’ “36 hours in…” roundups to glossy magazines’ “10 things to do in…” selections. Directories of the usual suspects, these guides hit all the right (touristy) chordes, without ever delving deep into the city DNA. And […]

A photography pilgrimage

Sarah travelled from the Shanghai expo into the highlands of Sichuan Province and brought us back this arresting series of photographs. Her customary soft-spoken snapshots offering somewhat of a poetic narrative to her travels, we thought accompanying credits would simply ruin it. No words, just imagery…

Our pick of London summer festivals (+ a giveaway)

Some hop on the plane to Barcelona to take in the sea, sex and songs at Sonar, whilst others road-trip it down to Sete for Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Festival – a jamboree of urban sounds that this year has everyone from The Gaslamp Killer to Gil Scott Heron headlining the cult seaside musical festival. The […]

The Special Showstoppers: At the back of the bus

The nomadic lifestyle of the band on the summer festival circuit is both a blessing and a curse. While such movement adds exponentially to both industry cred and the rock ‘n’ roll allure, the effects on both sanity and hygiene can be much less desirable. Whether struck by stress, boredom, the sense of imprisonment, or […]

Currently available at

Giving an extended online lease of life to an article we ran with in our skin issue, here’s the piece Randa (our newly-posted London correspondant) did on Dover Street Market. Photography Charlotte May Wales Dover Street Market still feels fresh as new despite being around for half a decade, making it one of the best, […]

Christmas kitsch – The forgotten ones

In the rush of it all, I skipped a whole set of photographs Maren had taken. A little later than expected, some more Christmas Kitsch, this time from her recent trip to Barcelona:

Christmas Kitsch

Its been a long year, and, despite it being halved, an apparently even longer week. Stylists with egos the size of cathedrals (we won’t kick and tell), distributors who want more (not that we’d complain) and readers we disappointed (our Charleroi series seems to have rubbed one or two locals the wrong way) mean we’ve […]

The unprintables – The Word on Charleroi

A couple more shots that didn’t make it onto The Heritage Issue‘s pages, this time from Sarah‘s series on Charleroi:

On the way to the office – season’s finale

With Veerle‘s internship drawing to a close (sadly, she’s leaving us today), we bring you the latest installement in her continuing series. Here, she wanders the Ghent neighbourhoods of Ledeberg and Gentbrugge, dilly-dallies in the forest of Wenduine before ending up in Blankenberge. PS: No lengthy parting speeches to give, except to say a big […]

Through the window

In part three of their voyage, Arnaud and Adrien hop aboard Japan’s Shinkansen for an outward-looking, high-speed wizz through the country’s urban landscapes. “So we hit Tokyo Station to try out our very first Shinkansen (Japan’s answer to France’s TGV), we buy tickets at the counter with a nerdy grin on our faces. Next in […]

For the love of paper…

Part two of Arnaud and Adrien’s Japanese trials and tribulations takes us to Jimbocho, Tokyo’s mile-long ode to ink on paper, for a couple of hours of obssessive rummaging. The day spent amongst the shelves had somewhat of a pilgrimage feel to it for Arnaud, an avid collector, connaisseur and “amoureux” of photography books of […]

Mind set on Iran…

Sarah, one of our photographers, and her boyfriend Yves, just came back from three weeks travelling around Iran. She took some mesmerising pictures, he ever so kindly scribbled down some words for us: “Let’s get one thing straight. Iran is not a terrorist nation. It must be one of the easiest countries to travel in. […]