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Our first stop in Belgium was in its Wallonia region, which is known for its chateau's, caves and charming towns so that's exactly what we visited. The Hotton Caves were dark, wet and cold, so not my three favourite things in the world but we still really enjoyed it. The caves were full of stalagmites, stalactites, columns and grottoes and our very cute tour guide made it all the more interesting! The little town of Durbuy was our next stop which is probably one of the most beautifully picturesque towns I've ever been in. Lots of charming little cafe's and shops, cobbled streets, flowers and cute dogs everywhere, oh I never wanted to leave! We took a nap on the river bank, ate ice cream and walked around the beautiful little streets... it's a hard life! Speaking of hard lives, we then went to visit the Chateau de Modave (which has a tree lined driveway leading up to it) and what awaited us at the end was anything but disappointing. Oh it was so beautiful and with hardly any other visitors we pretty much had the place to ourselves. The really nice lady on the desk gave us student discount even though I told her we weren't students, so for the bargain price of €4 each we spent the afternoon walking around this palatial chateau. Today was a very good day!
It was then onto Liege which we didn't really explore except for one church which we couldn't even get into and its mainline train station which is an immense, white, arched building that soars over the station and trains below. It's an impressively bold and confident structure, which serves more than its purpose of just being a train station; it's a work of art and is a definite must see if you're ever in this part of the world. On the drive from Liege to Brussels we were a bit low on fuel but we figured we'd get some at the next petrol station.. which turned out to be another 70km's down the highway! When the monitor stopped telling us of how many more km's we could drive after it got down to 10km and with the constant beeping from the car to warn us that we're low on fuel it was all a bit stressful, but we literally made it by the smell of an oily rag. I don't think I've ever been so happy to see a petrol station!
My aunty Ruth visited Brussels many years ago when I was only small, and I always remembered it because I'd never heard of anyone ever going there before. Everyone went to Spain, or Italy or even Paris on their holidays, so it always stuck with me and from that moment it has always been somewhere I've wanted to go. While we were there though we had the most torrential rain, which hardly stopped but we soldiered on and it in no way tainted our view of this wonderful city. Our first experience of Brussels was the Cathedral of St Michael, before heading to the Galleries St-Hubert, which was Europe's first covered shopping arcade and it still maintains an elegance about it, helped by the boutique chocolatiers along its avenue, which of course we had a sample of: amazing! We then visited Manneken Pis, which the famous little boy pissing cheekily into a fountain, which I thought would be life-sized but its only about a foot tall. He also has a squatting sister who is hidden away down an alley way not far from the Grand Place which we had to visit too on the grounds of equality! The Grand Place by the way, is what my guidebook describes as "one of the world's most beautiful squares" and it really is, where every building that surrounds it is stunning in its own right, it's almost hard to take it all in.
So you can't come to Belgium without having some Belgium waffles, and according to all the reviews we read the Maison Dandoy Tea Rooms make the best and being only one street over from the Grand Place we couldn't not pay it a visit, and oh my god they were incredible! They were easily the best waffles I've ever had. They sell two different types; Liege and Brussels, so of course we tried both, although Darren had only taken one mouthful out of his when I spilled his hot chocolate all over it. I felt so bad but it actually was a good combintion. Surprisingly not it was still raining when we were leaving but thankfully our next stop was indoors at the European Parliamentarian, which was really good and so well done. I think it's only been recently opened so it's very hi-tech with lots of interactive and interesting things to read and do.. it was the perfect place to be on a rainy afternoon.
The next day we headed to the iconic Atomium, which looks like a giant atom and something straight out of an old school space-age movie, very retro and very impressive! The scale of this thing is what strikes you most, left over from the 1958 world fair it looks like something other worldly and is unlike anything I've ever seen, we both loved it and must have taken hundreds of photos of it, it was so awesome. We then jumped back in the car and headed to Ghent as it was on our way to out next stop Bruges but on getting there we wished we could've stayed longer. It was so beautiful with its canal, interesting architecture and funky shops. The thing that really strikes me about Ghent and Belgium in general is that it feels like a country that is looking forward, it doesn't rely on or push the history of its past on you. It is proud of what it is now, and because of that it was just such an amazing place to be, funky, chilled and elegant was my impression.
Arriving at our next campsite (which we hadn't booked) we were turned away as they were full, but they gave us a few alternatives and we were ever so grateful because the drive to the campsite we ended up at was something else, and one of the highlights of our time in Belgium. Having been designed and planted a long time ago the straight canals and tree lined roads that run beside them are all perfectly aligned but somehow look like they've been there forever, and they go on and on, for miles and miles. They were so beautiful to drive along and such a treat for us, especially as we weren't expecting it. The campsite we ended up in was busy and very basic but we were just glad to get somewhere. The next morning we packed up and headed into Bruges, which I have to say was a little disappointing, that's not to say this place isn't beautiful because it is, but it just didn't have the same charm as Ghent or the elegant vibe of Brussels. We'd done no research before coming here and just expected to be wowed because everyone we know who's ever been here has loved it, and I suppose that was our mistake. We wondered around the main square and city and along a bit of the canal but for both of us Ghent was a much more charming and interesting place with less tourists, so I'd choose it over Bruges any day.
The people of Belgium are warm and friendly, the architecture is stunning, the towns are charming and the chocolate and waffles are extraordinarily good, there is nothing not to like about this small but perfectly formed country and along with Austria it's my favourite country we've visited. I loved it!
Clare
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