2nd European Meet-up (Ghent, Belgium)

2nd European Meet-up - Participations confirmed from :ru: :it: :ukraine: :belgium: :de: :palestinian_territories: :uk: :sweden:

Woodrow Wilsonplein

Woodrow Wilsonplein, 9000 Gent, Belgium

June 07, 2019 @ 18:00 (CEST)

#euromeetup19

In September 2018, the very first European Meet-up took place in Krakow (Poland), bringing together Local Guides from 6 different countries. In June 2019 the 2nd European Meet-up will be held in Ghent (Belgium), and we hope to see Local Guides from even more countries there! Just to make things clear: also non-European Local Guides who happen to be in the area at that time are more than welcome.

PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

The event will last for several days, but everyone is free to join as much or as little as (s)he wants. Here’s an overview of the highlights (more details will be added as the date gets closer):

Friday, June 7th (6:00 PM): We meet at the Woodrow Wilson Square at 6 PM for a Food Crawl in Ghent to get a first glimpse of the city and get to know the fellow Local Guides.

We will have dinner at Basta Resto, and they are sponsoring this meet-up. They’ll be providing a coffee for us all to enjoy. They understand that none of us is promising contributions of any kind to the business in exchange for sponsoring the meet-up.

After dinner we close the day at the Trappistenhuis, where we can taste some of the world renowned belgian beers.

Saturday, June 8th:

  • Ghent: Photo Walk
  • 9:30 AM Ghent Altarpiece (“Adoration of the Mystic Lamb”) - one of the most influential paintings ever made
  • 11:30 AM Castle of the Counts - a 12th century castle with a renowned museum of torture devices)
  • 3:00 PM Boat trip on the waterways in the city center

At 19:00 we will have dinner at a restaurant in the city center offering some local specialties: Amadeus.

Sunday, June 9th:

Dinner will be at Pizzeria Baibilonia at 6:00 PM

Monday, June 10th:

  • visit the BRU city that most Meet-up participants vote for: Bruges or Brussels
  • help me celebrate my birthday

TRAVEL TIPS

Travel and hotel arrangements need to be organized and paid for by yourself, but I will gladly assist wherever I can. The nearest airports are Brussels (BRU) and Charleroi (CRL). From Brussels Airport, the easiest way to get to Ghent is by train, as there is a direct connection (every 30 minutes or so, until 10 PM). The rides takes less than an hour and costs 18 EUR.

As there are some short trips to be made during the meet-up (1 hour drive from airport to Ghent / 1 hour drive from Ghent to Ieper on Sunday), I will look into the possibilities of arranging/coordinating ways to make it as smooth as possible for all participants (which will largely depend on the number of participants - only 4 can join in my car :grinning:).

If you have any remaining questions, just post them as a comment here or send me a private message.

And of course: please help sharing this information om your social media accounts - and don’t forget to add #euromeetup19 and #letsguide !

Photo: Beeldbank Stad Gent

European Flag Icon: Nordic Factory

RSVP here

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Oh @JanVanHaver ,

This is great!

This meet-up will be amazing. The agenda is very interesting, and I am sure your birthday will be celebrated appropriately!

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Great , best of luck for your meetup @JanVanHaver . Have a great time. Will be waiting for your meetup recap.

Namaste

Niraj

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It is great idea to organize Meet -Up in Belgium @JanVanHaver !

I would like to join!

I have never been in Belgium.

The schedule of this event -interesting!

And you have a birthday on the 10th of June–it is great!

Cheers,

Inga

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@JanVanHaver , FANTASTIC!

I hope I will manage to come, as I only some weeks before this date will takeover a new role in a new company.

I havn’t been to Ghent yet, but “only” to Brussel and Antwerpen. Except of the beer (no clue why you call it in tnis way) all was fantastic :wink:

So, in fact, I will do all possible to join you at least Saturday and Sunday. @LudwigGermany @barrazacarlos : Are you read ??? :wink:

(For all who do not know the relation between Belgium and Germany: The comment about the excellent belgian beer is a joke. We only like this kind of joke, because both of us know, that only Czech beer is the real beer :wink: )

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This is awesome @JanVanHaver ! Glad to see there will be a second annual Local Guides European Meetup! And you already have two Local Gudes @helga19 and @TorM from last year already interested in attending!

Can’t wait to see who else will be joining you for this and to be with you on your birthday.

Cheers,

Karen

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@JanVanHaver AWESOME!!! I hope I can join 2 European Meet-up! Thanks!

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@TorM @helga19 @NatalkaR it would be great if you could attend - I already look forward to seeing you again! Perhaps we could create a Euro-Summit-Expert badge for those who attend them all :rofl:

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@JanVanHaver That’s great - I put it on my calendar!

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Booked, @JanVanHaver

this is simply great. I have never been in Belgium too, you are giving me a good opportunity to learn more, and the program sounds more than interesting.

Well done, Jan

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Excellent news @ErmesT @LudwigGermany - pretty soon I can start updating the post with flag emojis to represent the participating countries.

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Hi @JanVanHaver ,

Thank you for sharing the details of this meet-up with us.

It looks amazing, can’t wait for the recap. Please do tag me, so I won’t miss it.

Have fun and keep on great posts.

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Oh really ? :frowning: I have a wedding to go the 7th of June in Ludwigsburg.

I’ll have to check if I will be able to get there by the 8th.

Annyways, great news to read about the 2nd European Meet Up.

@JanVanHaver

@TorM

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Will do @MoniV - and obviously also moderators (both the ‘Connect’ and the ‘Google’ species) are more than welcome to join. As well as Googlers, of course :smile:

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Having to choose between attending a wedding and a local guide meet-up… life can be full of tough, heartbreaking choices, @barrazacarlos :rofl:

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I have now added some more info about getting from Brussels airport to Ghent:

From Brussels Airport, the easiest way to get to Ghent is by train, as there is a direct connection (every 30 minutes or so, until 10 PM). The rides takes less than an hour and costs 18 EUR.

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Hi @JanVanHaver

Thank you for organizing the 2nd European meet-up.

This is a great opportunity to visit Belgium.

Look forward for meeting with my Local Guides friends!

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@AdrianLunsong any chance anyone from your Manchester local guides would be interested in joining the European Meetup (provided that UK residents are by then still allowed to enter the EU :sunglasses:)?

And could you please help spreading the news to other local guides in the UK? My aim is to bring local guides together from as many different countries as possible - so far the list consists of 4 flags.

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This will be awesome @JanVanHaver

I wish you a successful meet up…

Looking forward to see your recap…

Kind regards

Sagir

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@JanVanHaver I’ll spread the word out to the UK folks! Not sure about the rest but I’m still unsure about my holiday plans! Will try to though as I’ve not been to Ghent and it sounds like a fun experience! Will PM you too! :slight_smile:

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