Quixoticguide
Hi, I’m Maarten Van Den Driessche, a curious human, aviation enthusiast, vexillophile, world traveler, and food lover with over 14,000 days of life experience.

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King Fahd’s Fountain – Where Jeddah Touches the Sky
Some cities reach for the sky with glass and steel. Jeddah does it with water. On the shores of the Red Sea rises King Fahd’s Fountain, the highest fountain in the world, shooting a column of seawater up to 312 metres into the air. That is higher than the Eiffel Tower, taller than most skyscrapers,…
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Emirates: Hello Tomorrow
Few airline slogans have aged as gracefully—or proven as accurate—as “Hello Tomorrow.” Launched by Emirates in 2013, the phrase is more than a marketing line. It is a statement of intent, a worldview, and a promise that air travel can still feel like a step into the future. At its core, Hello Tomorrow positions Emirates…
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Monschau: A Half-Timbered Fairytale in the Eifel
Monschau is one of those places that feels carefully preserved, as if time decided to slow down here. Tucked into a narrow valley of Germany’s Eifel region, right near the Belgian border, this small town is defined by half-timbered houses leaning gently over the Rur River, cobbled streets, and forested hills that rise abruptly on…
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The Vennbahn: Cycling Through Borders, History, and One of Europe’s Strangest Frontiers
Some journeys are about distance. Others are about borders. The Vennbahn manages to be about both — while quietly bending the rules of geography along the way. Stretching for roughly 125 kilometres from Aachen (Germany) to Troisvierges (Luxembourg), the Vennbahn follows the former trackbed of a railway line that once stitched together the industrial heart…
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National Neutrality Day: When a Country Declares Distance from Conflict
Every year on 12 December, Turkmenistan celebrates National Neutrality Day — a public holiday unlike almost any other in the world. It marks the moment in 1995 when the United Nations formally recognized Turkmenistan as a permanently neutral state. In a world shaped by alliances, blocs, and military treaties, neutrality is not just a policy…
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The Chancery Rosewood: London’s New Embassy of Quiet Luxury
London doesn’t usually do subtlety when it comes to luxury hotels. But The Chancery Rosewood — the city’s newest ultra-luxury opening in Mayfair — is an exception. Quiet, cultured, architectural, and deeply refined, it transforms the former U.S. Embassy on Grosvenor Square into something rare: a hotel that feels both historic and modern, both grand…
Where curiosity leads
Travel isn’t about collecting countries, but about understanding them.
These are places that shaped how I see the world — not just destinations, but contexts, encounters, and stories waiting to unfold
Travel Beyond Tourism
- Discover Places
- Understand Cultures
- Travel Better
- Meet the World
- Learn the Context


My Travel guides
- Not instructions, but orientation.
- These guides explain how places work — so you don’t just visit, you arrive.
“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” –
Ibn Battuta
Maghrebi traveller