An unforgettable concert: the audience was ablaze with Petula fever!

Ostend is a city perched in the north of Belgium in the Flanders area of the country –hence the spelling of the city is often Oostende. It is a sea-side town–I am sure very lovely and busy in summer. But at the end of November with blustery winds blowing from the North Sea, it was pretty much devoid of tourists. We, nonetheless, attempted a stroll along the seaside promenade but had to cut it short as biting winds brought wet snow in from the sea.

But the cold outside gave no hint of the warmth that awaited us within. The Kursaal, the concert venue, was a palatial place. The first-floor foyer was spacious and elegant. There was a mix of English and French speakers bustling in, chatting animatedly as they waited for the doors to the second-floor concert hall to open. When the doors finally opened, the crowd eagerly climbed the grand staircase and inside the hall, the continuous chatter never abated. The excitement leading up to the concert was palpable.

Then it happened: Petula came on stage! The audience rushed to their feet with boisterous, thunderous applause. Being used to more subdued Petula audiences in the UK and even North America–the vocal enthusiasm was something I had not expected–but it continued throughout the evening. The audience loved Petula and every song brought a loud voicing of that approval. The fervour was infectious. It continued after the last song with the audience chanting ‘Petula, Petula”. Eventually, people shuffled out of the concert hall but the chanting carried into the foyer downstairs for at least a half hour after the concert ended .As we left the warmth of the Kursaal and headed into the cold again, we wondered how long the chants went on and if Petula ever came from backstage to greet her adoring fans.

Although the evening in Oostende was unforgettable, the wonderful bonus about all of our Petula tours, was the opportunity it gave us to explore surrounding places. For this trip , it was our time in Brussels and Brugge, both of which preceded the concert.

We arrived in Brussels from London via the Eurostar—train travel in Europe is one of my favorite things, and the Eurostar always feels like a special treat. The arrival in Brussels, however, was a bit less smooth. We were staying at the Marriott Hotel in the city center, and upon exiting the terminal, we hopped into the first cab parked by the curb. Later, we learned that this wasn’t the official taxi pickup area—we had completely missed the sign!

We asked the driver to take us to the Marriott, and he dropped us off outside a hotel and unloaded our bags. But when we stepped inside and approached the reservation desk, we discovered we weren’t at the Marriott at all—we were at the Hilton! Thankfully, the desk agent at the Hilton was kind enough to call another cab for us, and we eventually made our way to the Marriott.

It was a wonderful time to be in Brussels as the Christmas market season was beginning–I had never experienced a European Christmas market and was delighted by the smells of the foods wafting through the air and the displays of crafts and watching the skaters on the ice rink. Fortunately, we had warmer weather than we experienced later in our time in Ostend and we were able to stroll leisurely through the markets.

While in Brussels we took in two tours–one through Brussels itself that included stops at the Royal Palace and at EU Parliament. We added a day tour to Brugge to visit that quaint town with its cobblestone streets, canals and medieval architecture . That day was so delightful especially as Brugge was all decked out with festive decorations, like a scene depicted on a Christmas card.

As I recall this Petula adventure, once again I am reminded that without our love of seeing Petula in concert, we would have likely never chosen Ostend or Brugge or Brussels in November and missed all of this!