I could have summed up what I knew about Belgium in two words: frites and chocolate (shaped like seashells, but fancy, so mostly eaten at Christmas).

There are places that are on your bucket list, perhaps Iguazu Falls, having your own Sleepless in Seattle moment at the top of the Empire State Building, or travelling on a slow boat down the Mekong River. Then, there are secondary destinations; these, I put on my "teacup list". Sure, I’m happy to go, but if I don’t visit in my lifetime I won't be heartbroken. That list includes Cairo, Stuttgart, Bucharest.

Then there are towns and cities that just simply fall off the end of any list. Places you’ll visit only for work or if you’re transiting through. For me, quite honestly, Antwerp was such a place. My family and I needed to pass through Belgium before embarking on the new European sleeper train to Prague but I had little investment in, or expectations for, that leg of journey.

But I'd forgotten how the places along the way can turn out to be the most memorable. In this I include the Italian restaurant in a desolate spot by Wroclaw Airport which I still maintain is the best pasta I have ever eaten, despite having lived in Rome. See also the orange lights of a motorway service station in the Republic of Georgia at 3am in the morning, on the way to Kutaisi airport, with huge dogs and lazily roaming cows loping across the forecourt, a fluffy bite of sugary doughnut and a hot........

© Herald Scotland