Wedding of Elise & Yves @ Second Life's Bruges

Just one day before the official opening of the virtual Bruges in Second Life, Yves Welles and his love Elise got married in the new city hall.
And, as it was supposed to be, witnessed by a lot of avatars who where invited to join this special occasion, everything was in place. This must have been a wonderful experience to Elise and Yves, one they will never forget.
Two SL photographers where asked to put this occasion into an unforgettable collection of snapshots. Vint Falken and me were honoured to do the job.
It was not the most easiest job that I have done so far. The place was very laggy, and I hate that. My camera was most of the time not at the scene, where it should be, and to get it back in place was terrible. And then there were these poseballs.
Have you ever tried to take snapshots of something, while the place is full of poseballs, and trying to avoid these, or having the balls secured at a minor important spot?
Well, finally, I think we both did a fine job. But I would like also the opinion of you, my readers of this blog.
The complete set is to be found on my flickr stream.

Virtual Bruges in Second Life

Finally!!!! It is open for the public! The beautiful Belgian city Bruges in Second Life. And the result may be there. Convince yourself by visiting the place.
I you have never been to Bruges in RL, it is now the time to have a look what this town, at 20 km from the sea, has to offer through Second Life.
They have done a marvelous job. I have tried to put them in a snapshot, so you all can have a sneak preview of Bruges, the Venice of the North.

Virtual tourism in Bruges, Belgium

Press Release

Second Life, 7 Sep 2007. When planning your next city trip, you might include Bruges, Belgium, on your list this year. But before visiting Bruges, don’t forget to visit Virtual Bruges in Second Life. Virtual Bruges is a reconstruction of the historic city of Bruges. Walk around in a 3D virtual representation of a central part of Bruges and explore the old houses and monuments before planning your real life city trip.

During your visit of Bruges in Second Life, ask other Second Life residents information about what historical places to visit, which shops and restaurants to try out. You might not yet taste the food in virtual Bruges, but you can select those restaurants that are in a nice environment.

Created in 2003 by Linden Lab, Second Life is a virtual world where people all over the world meet each other to exchange ideas, property and other digital goods. Also 3D representations of houses and stores can be recreated in Second Life. Several other companies such as IBM, Sun and ABN-AMRO have opened islands. Even sports events, such as the Wimbledon tennis championship, were recreated and the matches were played again in this virtual environment.

Residents of Second Life can participate in events the will be held in Virtual Bruges, rent a house or the more business-minded residents can open a shop in one of the houses. To rent a house or shop, contact AnnSophie Maertens in-world. The island (􀀃) will be open for the general public on 15/Sep/2007.

On this opening weekend you can participate in the following events:
- 15 September 2007 :
9 am slt fashion show styled by the designers in the sim with live dj
12 pm slt live performance of the Belgian band Grensgeval

- 16 September 2007 :
9 am slt live performance of Dann Numbers
12 pm slt live performance of Phoenix Fisseux
1 pm slt fireworks

During the whole weekend there will be a egg hunt: you can win 20 x 125 linden dollars to spend in the shops in Bruges.

For being updated about the sim, the shops, the events and special offers feel free to join the secondlife group Bruges lovers.

Virtual Bruges in Second Life is created by Louis Platini, a long time resident, who recently brought vacature.com, a recruitment service company, to Second Life. Several other people have helped with this project by creating one or more houses: Peter13 Petermans, Magdalena Vella, Khady Amat and Arnout Sequent.

For more information contact Louis Platini in-world or visit the website http://www.louisplatini.com

Opening Bruges!!

Just a couple of weeks away from the great opening of Bruges in Second Life. A date to remember.
On the Belgian SIM, Metacon, a consulting company, is almost ready with this extraordinary project.
As you all know, Bruges, a town in the Flanders, is also known as the Venice of the North.
I think this is going to be the most beautiful place on SL, the most realistic one. You have to see it. I posted already some pictures of it in the early stages, and then it was already looking promising.

Bruges, the real thing!

This post has nothing to do with the previous post "A night in Bruges".

Yesterday evening I ran into AnnSophie Maertens, who happens to be the “leading” lady and owner of the Belgian sim (België).

We were talking about the photo contest, and the exposition of all competing pictures. I was told that from this weekend on, all pictures will be shown on the first floor of the Mardes club. The voting will be done on the site of secondlifecrew.be. But more news from the contest will be posted later on this blog.

AnnSophie, who has done a pretty good job so far, with the new Belgium sim, proposed to visit the second sim. As I had never heard about a second sim, I was immediately interested to find out what could possibly be a second “België”.

As soon as we came at that location, she already asked me, if I recognized the place. As there was not much to see at that spot, and as I was not from the region, I assume I let her down a bit, by saying it was not familiar to me.*shame on me*.

I tried though,… Antwerp, ….Ghent, but no, it was Bruges. How was it possible to miss that…..?

She explained to me what the plans are on the sim, and immediately, I could see what a beautiful place this will be in a few months. Together with the company MetaCon, which has realized some amazing buildings in second life already, she will built a complete Belgian “Venice”, as Bruges is happen to be named sometimes.

Real buildings of Bruges are being built as they are in RL. Amazing!

Houses, shops and so much more will be built at this location, all to be sold or to let to Sl residents, within a few months. So if anyone is interested to live or have a shop on the most beautiful location in Second Life, has to wait just a couple of months.

If, among the readers, there are Belgian builders, who are interested to be part of this major project, and want to participate in helping to have this location be noticed by the whole SL world, can contact AnnSophie Maertens or Louis Platini, from MetaCon, in world. Everything will be provided, as textures etc….

A night in Bruges.

It was already late when I logged in to SL. Once I was on the grid I started to read all notes coming from my memberships, which I have to decrease, because people are talking to me, while I am reading all those messages, and I can't respond in time, so they think I crashed already. You know what I am talking about?
Nevertheless, between those messages, there was one request for tp from my friend Bella March, to ask if I would like to join her in Bruges, one of the most prettiest cities in Belgium. But once arrived at this place, it was not at all the city where I was thinking off. The people even did not talk Dutch. But Bella was there, thus everything was fine.
It was a club with, from time to time nice music, and a cool ambiance.
But actually, I did not had the time to enjoy much of the music, while chatting with Bella, who gave soma extra tips for my new blog. Thanks Bella!
Look at the pictures and you will notice that "The Bushy Beard" is a cool place to be.