Discovering Belgium

Choco-Story

2012-02-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

5 stars (rate on Google Places)

How many chocolate museums does Belgium need? There currently at least four in Bruges, Brussels, Eupen and Halle (the latter two are on a company’s site and have limited access). Nearby, Cologne also has a great museum which even hosts a chocolate factory inside. According to chocolate wrappers, there are about 40 chocolate museums in the world.

The story starts 4,000 years back with the various uses of cocoa. The initial use was religious. Mayans mixed cocoa with beans and blood as an offering to their gods. Chocolate-flavoured drinks were consumed at baptisms, weddings and funerals. Even today in Latin America, cocoa drinks are more popular than chocolate and remains part of the regular diet.

Read more »

Sint-Truiden abbey tower & crypt

2012-01-22T09:12:00.000-08:00

4 stars (rate on Google Places)

St Trudo, son the the count of Haspengouw (French: Hesbaye, English: Hasbein) founded his abbey in 664. After his death in 693, and subsequent canonisation by precongregation, the place developed into a sanctuary. The abbey flourished and became one of the largest monastic complexes in the Netherlands. Since 812, the abbey follows the rule of Benedict. Around the abbey developed the city of Sint-Truiden, a town with current population around 40,000 that received a charter in the 11th century.

Read more »

Walking in Belgium's colonial past

2012-01-21T08:23:00.000-08:00

The first reference to the name Tervueren dates back to 743 A.D., in a description of the life of Saint-Hubert, Patron Saint of hunters, who allegedly died in Tervuren in 727. Still today, mass is celebrated in Saint-Hubert’s chapel each year at the end of October.

In 1897, one of the seven times when Belgium organised a world exhibition, King Leopold II selected his Congo policy as the central theme for the exhibition. On the former hunting grounds of the Dukes of Brabant, that had been neglected for the past century, the Colonial Palace was built, and the surroundings were transformed into a beautiful park. The Avenue de Tervueren, connecting the Colonial Palace to the Cinquantenaire dates from the same period.

Read more »

Herisem walk

2012-01-20T08:40:00.000-08:00

Belgium is an extremely developed country. In its highly cultivated landscape, there are hundreds of recreational walks in the range of 5 to 15 km which can be enjoyed all year round.

Just 15 km out of Brussels, Beersel offers a number of walks in the Pajottenland. One of these, the Herisem walk is about 7 km. Once you’re out of the centre of Beersel, the walk is largely across quiet roads, some unpaved, some sunken. This walk is nowhere near adventurous, but you’d need to put on your walking shoes.

Read more »

The Beguinages of Mechelen (Malines)

2012-01-16T08:19:00.000-08:00

Mechelen (Malines) has 2 beguinages - the small one, and the large one. The oldest one is the small beguinage which dates back from the 13th century. As it became too small, a second, larger beguinage was established outside the city walls, but older and infirm beguines remained inside the walls, which explains the existence of the two beguinages..

In past times, Mechelen harboured as many as 2,000 beguines, but they have now all gone, and their historic houses have become prized accommodation for independent professions.

Read more »

Belgium from A to Z

2011-12-16T00:47:00.000-08:00

What can you experience in Belgium?

A for abbey, archaeology, Art Nouveau

B for beer, battlefields, billiard, beguinages, belfries, baroque

C for comic strip, castle, chocolate, cycling, cheese, chicory, carnival, ceramics

D for danse, diamonds, Father Damien

E for European Union

Read more »

Grand-Hornu - industrial paternalism in the Borinage

2011-12-11T05:35:00.001-08:00

5 stars (rate on Google Places)

In 1810, at the age of 36 years, Henri De Gorge acquired the colliery of Grand-Hornu. At the time, Belgium was emerging as the second industrial nation in the world after Britain. The steel, mining and textile industries rapidly developed. Railroads were built. Fortunes were made (and lost).

Read more »

Bakery Museum in Veurne

2011-12-05T23:50:00.001-08:00

4 stars (rate on Google Places)

We visited the Bakery Museum on the way back from France and were unfortunate to pick one of the days without a workshop. There are about 200 workshops per year, so make sure you visit when there is one scheduled.

The setting of the museum is in the restored, 17th century Zuidgasthoeve (‘hoeve’ means ‘farm’ in Flemish and Dutch). It collects material related to Belgium’s (recent) bakery heritage.

The visit goes through a series of exhibits of what can be expected - a reconstruction of an old bakery shop, tools from the atelier, … Interesting are the videos showing the intricate, artisanal process of producing a caramel candy called babelutten, a specialty from the Belgian coast.

The best part however starts when you move to the barn. There you see wax displays of the hundreds of types of bread used around the world. You can also see some heavy machinery, and a display on the different types of cereals and flowers.

Lambic Visitor Centre

2011-12-04T23:45:00.001-08:00

5 stars (rate on Google Places)

Next to the new tourist office of Beersele, near the starting point of the Herisem walk, you’ll find the brand new (open since May 2011) Lambic visitor centre where you can learn all about this unique beer culture from the Pajottenland.

Read more »

Museum of Original Figurines

2011-12-03T23:18:00.001-08:00

Rating 2 stars (rate on Google Places)

After the Belgian Comic Strip Centre and the Marc Sleen and Herge museums, Belgium now also has the Museum of Original Figurines, or MOOF. ‘Noblesse oblige’ - in our coverage of comic strip culture, we need to pay a visit, though with not too high expectations.

Read more »

Flemish Comic Strip Centre

2011-12-02T02:38:00.001-08:00

Rating 5 star (rate on Google Places)

Since 30 years, ‘t Vlaams Stripcentrum is a private, non-profit initiative to disseminate comic strip culture. With 3,000 members, 30,000 comic strips and 800,000 loans - going for a million - the centre offers a library second to none in Belgium.

Read more »

Saint Rumbold's Cathedral

2011-12-01T02:40:00.001-08:00

5 stars (rate on Google Places)

When Lecturama published a series of 35 books about travelling in the Benelux in the eighties, it surprisingly dedicated one of the volumes to the city of Mechelen (Malines). With 12 provinces in The Netherlands, 10 in Belgium, Luxembourg as a country, and cities such as Amsterdam, Antwerp, Bruges, Brussels, Ghent, Leuven, Liège, Namur, Rotterdam, ‘s Hertogenbosch and The Hague, why devote a full volume to Mechelen?

Located between Antwerp and Brussels, the former capital of the Low Countries tends to be neglected, in favour of Bruges or Ghent. A visit to Mechelen demonstrates that it’s yet another secret that we Belgians have kept very well to ourselves.

Read more »

Herisem Paper Mill

2011-11-29T00:21:00.001-08:00

4 stars (rate on Google Places)

About halfway through the Herisem walk of Beersel, you find the Herisem paper mill, lending its name to the walk. This tiny yet significant grouping of buildings has been occupied at least since the 8th century, at which time a Franconian farm stood at the location. The name Herisem can be traced back to Harja-heim, settling place of Harja.

Read more »

Map of Belgian tourist attractions

2011-11-27T03:14:00.001-08:00

Why this map? In Belgium, distances are small, but still it can take you up to 2 hours to reach Belgium’s extremities from Brussels. It would be a pity, having travelled the distance, to miss a nearby attraction. Therefore this map, to be used as a planning tool.

Read more »

Frietmuseum

2011-11-13T08:50:00.001-08:00

Rating: 5 stars (rate this place on Google Places)

The Frietmuseum (Museum of French fries) in Bruges is unique in the world. At first, its name seems to reveal one of these artificial places often created at tourist hotspots. The ground floor is actually about the history of the potato. Only on the second floor will you learn the origin of frying them. I guess there are weirder museums in the world. As for authenticity, Belgium probably needs this museum, and Bruges is as good a place as any to locate it.

The visit starts with the history of the potato, from its origins in Latin America 13,000 years ago. The crop was domesticated 8,000 years ago, and has since evolved into 4,000 varieties with a global annual production of 330 million tonnes in 2009. When taking into account that about one third of production is used as cattle food, 33 kg of potatoes are produced annually per world citizen.

Read more »

Comic Strip Walls in Antwerp

2011-11-03T23:08:00.000-07:00

After Brussels, Antwerp also has its project to develop a trajectory of comic strip walls in its city. The project is a bit more modest for the moment. As in Brussels, comic strips are used as one of the tools for urban renewal. Unlike Brussels, Antwerp does not limit itself to comic strips, but includes cartoonists and illustrators.

Mekanik, the comic strip shop in Antwerp and the force behind the initiative produced a compelling video.

Read more »

Villers Abbey

2011-11-02T06:55:00.000-07:00

Founded by 12 monks in 1146, Villers Abbey developed into a major site towards the end of the 13th century. At its peak, over 100 monks and 300 lay brothers lived on the site, which controlled a territory of more than a hundred square km spread out between Namur and Antwerp.

Read more »

Schaerbeek Beer Museum

2011-10-30T23:39:00.000-07:00

This small museum started in 1993 as a private initiative by 15 locals. Run by volunteers, and a bit off the beaten track, this museum is a must for beer lovers. The quiet place has a steady drip feed of visitors, who receive an individual tour from the museum staff. I’m met by Paula who speaks of their group as ‘15 fools’ but obviously does not regret to be one of them. Another of the 15 is a councillor in the municipality, who arranged that the museum could be housed in an abandoned school.

Paula has plenty of stories to tell about the history, folkore and manufacturing of beer. For example the story that during the Middle Ages, water quality was not good. Beer went however through extensive processing, and it was observed that beer drinkers were healthier and more resistant against epidemics than water drinkers. Our medieval ancestors attributed this to the hand of God, which explains the monastic beer tradition.

Read more »

BELvue museum

2011-10-29T03:45:00.000-07:00

BELvue is a museum about the history of Belgium. If you’re interested in a young state in which 2 very different cultures co-exist peacefully, Belgium is a model to study. If you plan to visit with children, make sure they are in their teens, and preferrably a bit precocious. This is not a frivolous museum.

Read more »

Marc Sleen Museum

2011-10-27T21:41:00.001-07:00

When visiting the Belgian Comic Strip Center, make sure that you cross the street and enter the Marc Sleen Museum. Through the combination ticket, for a mere 1 €, this visit is one of the good deals in town.

In this intimate museum, you can experience the life and work of Marc Sleen through his creation Nero, very well known in Belgium and especially Flanders, but relatively unknown abroad.

Read more »

Belgian Comic Strip Center

2011-10-25T14:10:00.000-07:00

A visit to the comic strip center can be many things - a journey back to childhood, a discovery of a new medium, a rediscovery of a hobby, or an encounter with the authors behind well-known heroes.

The visit is suitable for all ages. It certainly helps to already know some of the heroes on display, and most visitors may recognise at least the most famous ones, such as the Smurfs, Lucky Luke and Tintin.

Read more »

Museum of the National Bank of Belgium

2011-10-09T04:01:00.000-07:00

The Museum of the National Bank of Belgium started as an exhibition in 2002 (when the euro was introduced) but has meanwhile developed into a permanent museum receiving 35,000 visitors per year. If you’re interested in money as a cultural phenomenon, you can learn about it here in 4 main themes:

the history of money (and of the National Bank)
the role of the National Bank, i.e. to preserve the value of currency
how financial markets function
money as a cultural phenomenon (and not as the source of all evil)

Through 15 rooms, in a didactic way, the museum presents money in all its forms, its role in the economy, the mechanism of inflation and the role of the central bank.

Huy Fortress - Museum of Resistance and Concentration Camps

2011-10-05T01:12:00.000-07:00

Huy Fortress was constructed by the Dutch in 1818, not many years before Belgian’s independence. It’s a monumental building dominating the city of Huy. The fortress and the city are a worthwhile destination in their own right. Its hosting of the Museum of Resistance and Concentration Camps makes the trip only more worthwhile.

Read more »

Hergé Museum

2011-10-02T08:41:00.000-07:00

Few Belgians will disagree that Tintin and its creator deserve their own museum. Meeting such high expectations must have been a challenge, but the Hergé Museum does not disappoint.

This museum is very well organised and presents the microcosmos created by Hergé through a series of drawings, photos and videos, all projected into a chronicle of the 20th century.

Read more »

What to do if you have (only) a few hours to kill in Brussels?

2011-10-01T02:28:00.001-07:00

This question was asked on Virtual Tourist by a couple having 5 hours in Brussels during a long stop-over at the airport.

Assuming it is your first visit to Brussels, and if you have the energy, it would be a pity to remain at the airport with so many things to do nearby.

Read more »