Microsoft Virtual Earth in Belgium - "De Gentse Feesten" from a bird's eye view and much more...

bart — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 23:19:44 GMT

Microsoft Virtual Earth is cool - it really is. But did you - fellow Belgians - know it's closer that you might have expected? I collected a few links to a number of interesting places in Belgium that I really like (because of various reasons). An overview...

Ghent

The place where I studied and lived for the last couple of years. Also known by the Belgian Developer & IT Pro community for hosting the Developer & IT Pro Days this year and last year. Photos were taken on a sunny Sunday somewhere in July last year during "De Gentse Feesten" (click the links to collect evidence):

Sint-Jacobs (with dirty streets due to the "Feesten")
Vrijdagmarkt and kermis
Gravensteen
Graslei/Korenlei (with Polé Polé festival)
The three towers
Kouter
Opera and Palace of Justice
Gent Zuid shopping center
Bijloke
Blaarmeersen
Sint-Pietersplein (underground parking construction work almost finished)
SMAK and International Convention Center (Developer & IT Pro Days venue)
Gent Sint-Pieters railway station
Train driving to Ghent, possibly coming from Zottegem (my home town which unfortunately isn't on Virtual Earth yet)

University places:

Boekentoren and Faculty of Engineering
Entrance of Technicum
Sint-Pieters church and Faculty of Economy
Zuiderpoort
Sterre campus - S9 building
Watersportbaan and GUSB
My place (center window in the picture)
Julien (center of the picture, famous ~~French~~ Belgian fries in Ghent)

Antwerp

I do not come to Antwerp that often, but it's a nice place nevertheless (especially according to citizens of Antwerp). A few interesting places that pop in my mind directly:

Mechelen

Sint-Rombouts
Utopolis (a few Microsoft Belux MSDN events are taking place here)
Tivoli Castle (where I presented IIS 7.0 to the VISUG user group)

Ostend

Popular tourist places at or near to the Belgian coast:

Casino
Casino once more (observe Dirk Frimout on the roof in front of the casino)
Thermae Palace Hotel and Koninklijke Gaanderijen with pinguins on the roof border (no joke!)
Katholieke Hogeschool Brugge (presented an MSDN Security Evening session over there)
Domain Prins Karel (remainder of the Atlantikwall)
Fort Napoleon (nice less-known attraction and restaurant)
Railway station, a few boats, Cathedral
Mercator

Bruges

Undoubtly (one of) the most popular places in Belgium for tourists, especially the Japanese. Since I'm sure the latter ones have a zillions of photographs already I limit myself to two links:

Redmond

Where I'll stay from October on:

Microsoft Corporation HQ Redmond, WA - Building 10

Enjoy!