Advertisement
Published: August 18th 2017
At SInt Truiden
It's a few weeks ago that I stayed in Belgium on my way back home from Maastricht in Nederlands. It was only a 45 minute drive to the small town of Sint Truiden where I was to stay with Frans and Sonja ( another lot of home exchange friends). This was the first time we had met although they have stayed in my house twIce. What a great welcome I had and what a fabulous home they had, I felt like I was a luxury boutique hotel. (Home exchange can throw up some amazing places). Formerly a church and monastery had been built here in 1745 and when Napoleon went rampaging though the country he was set on destroying church property so many places were sold off . This was one of them and Sonja's ancestors bought this place and although some buildings had been knocked down the remaining adjoining houses have been renovated most beautifully.
Belgium is not the first place you think about when you think of a holiday ...Bruges and Brussels for a weekend perhaps but I found that there were some really lovely historic small towns with many beautiful churches and peaceful
countryside. It was lovely to wander in country lanes among fields of corn, wheat and barley and many many orchards...Apples, pears and cherries.
A few hours drive and we were in the Ardennes with some fabulous folded rock formations , deep forests and following the river Meuse. Here we stopiped at Dubrey , said to be the smallest city in the world !!! Am not sure how a place is designated a city here...in the U.K. It is a usually place with cathedral ...but here I think it was something to do with an ancient charter. Well whatever it was we had a great time wandering about the cobbled streets and admiring the buildings , shops and cafes.
Another day we were off to Zoutleeuw - try saying that!!- to visit the church of St Leonard. This is another one of those places you have never heard about , not an iconic place like The Louvre , Notre Dame or Sistine Chapel , but nevertheless full of wondrous ancient medieval treasures. We spent hours gazing at beautifully carved wooden statues and I wondered why I liked these and the ones in Maastricht so much then it dawned on
me ... they looked like real people not some religious stylised version of a saint or madonna ...I was looking at someone's face of hundreds of years ago. Also there was the church treasury with a beautiful embroidered Cape , ancient books and silver ...and all displayed so well. So back out into the sunshine after that we were off down the road a few Km to walk around a lake ... formerly a place where peat was dug it is now flooded and the boardwalks allow you to wander in amongst the bird life and frogs... another surprise!
Speaking of surprises as we drove from their home into the town of Sint Truiden along the main road I was told this stretch was called Champs D'Amour ( street of love ) !!!! Due to the fact that there had been a big army base nearby the Ladies of the night and day were to be seen in the windows of various small hotels / shops in their sexy underwear!!! I knew about the red light District in Amsterdam but I didn't expect to see it in a small town here in Belgium . It was all so neat
and tidy with parking places outside the various abodes it amused me to see some of the women standing there in their undies looking very bored , mobile phone in hand even early in the morning as we drove by. It takes all sorts , and I guess it safer for the sex workers ...maybe there isn't so much exploitation ...my Belgian friends said everyone was so used to it they just accepted it.
Back to a different kind of sightseeing!! Next day we were off to Bokrijk to an Open Air MUseum where you can wander to your hearts content and see various buildings from the different areas of Belgium. Kids would love it here too, there were so many different play areas and farm animals .
So thanks to Frans and Sonja for introducing me to the real Belgium ...and for a wonderful stay in their beautiful home - I will definitely be back . And this has also made me more determined to seek out places which are not on the usual tourist trail.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.148s; Tpl: 0.019s; cc: 16; qc: 32; dbt: 0.1074s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Ake Och Emma
Ake Dahllof and Emma Holmbro
To us Belgium = Castles
When we went to Belgium castles became the theme. We stayed in castles which are now used as hotels, we tried to visit the abandoned and ruined Castle Miranda but failed since they are very strict on not tolerating any trespassing (we weren't busted. We saw the signs and decided not to try it) and we also visited one or two castles. It seems like they have many castles, so many that they can't even take care of them all. I'd love to one day make a trip to Belgium and only explore castles. Ake