Travelling to Belgium

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photo_fred

photo_fred
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Oct 19, 2003
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Hi all, I'm looking to take a trip to Belgium in April and am wondering what things I can do for a 3 week trip.I'll be travelling to other close countries in that timeframe.I'll be travelling from Newfoundland,Canada.
Please give me what ever information you think is valuable.
Thanks
 
I spent a lot of time in Liege. Great cathedrals, great street scenes as it's a clollege town. If I would have had the time, I would have visited some WW I & II battlesites/cemetary's. The Battle of the Bulge wasn't fought too far from LIege.

The people I met were friendly, most spoke English and didn't make fun of my attempts at French. I felt very comfortable there.

Great beer too!
 
Brugge is a must!, take a trip over the channel in one of those old ferries. Eat good. Go to the beach and book overnight at a hotel on the beach. Take the morning train to Brussels (worlds most boring airport btw). Go windsurf.

Oostende is the ferry port.
Countryside is nice looking.
 
Eat, drink, be merry : beautiful old cities, nice and friendly people. As a "Newfie" you are used to ****ty weather... 3 weeks can be pretty long though. Since there is enough time left do some research and get an idea about what you actually would like to see, experience and shoot. (This will hardly happen, but at least you will know something before arriving).

Have you been to Europe before?
 
If you like landscapes, the south has a bit of shape (not really mountains) and the north is mostly flat, in parts spectacularly so (around Veurne, for example). In april there should be blooms in the fruit country around St-Truiden. You can get bicycles at the railway station and enjoy the countryside for a day.
If you don't mind milling about among hordes of tourists, Bruges is nice, but Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Liège, Charleroi, are the bigger cities, each fascinating on their own account. Antwerp is a port in flatland, Liège sits around an island in a river with cliffs on one side, Charleroi is surrounded by terrils, man-made mountains of coal-mine remainder, and other archaeology of the industrial revolution, and Ghent has an honest to god castle. Thousands of things to see. And everything connected by train.

You won't have enough with three weeks, not even three months. You might get bored after thirty years, but then there is always the beer. You'll need to try a few. We have three or four hundred. Take care, people will suggest the stuff that gets you dancing on the table and singing lewd songs very, very fast.

I don't know yet what my work schedule is for april, but if you want, I could maybe show you around Brussels a little. Send a message.
 
Paris-Roubaix? One of the spring classics and the greatest one day bicycle race in the world. I think April 13th, 2014. That where I'd be.
 
bonatto said:
If you're into motorsports, have a look at the calendar for Spa Francorchamps, it's a special place.
Click to expand...

Even when there is no race on. I remember as a kid staring out the car window at the pine forests and then suddenly rolling onto a stretch of formula 1 track. It was complete with bales of straw in the corners and the public stands etc. Quite surreal.
 
You should come to visit Lyon and the south of France. It's very easy to make it by train or car.
 
Musee de la photo near Charleroi: impressive permanent collection (Stieglitz, Arbus, Moholy-Nagy, Koudelka etc... if I remember well)... of course they serve beer inside the museum.
Plantin-Moretus museum in Antwerp: Gutenberg's bible, dozen of portraits from Rubens, Mercator's maps, world class illuminated manuscripts.

As somebody said thousands of things to see....

and I forgot my personal favorite:
http://www.pulsceramics.com/
http://www.boxgalerie.be/
 
If you're going to Antwerp not to miss: House of Peter Paul Rubens (famous painter); Museum Plantin-Moretus (***), the Cathedral, if you're interested in architecture: Zurenborg quarter and lots more. Near the cathedral there is a pub which has 250 different kinds of beer.
Have a good time, btw they have a Museum for Photography in Antwerp-South.

requin
 
April is the high season for cycling in Belgium. Tour of Flanders is a huge fiesta for one day and really worth experiencing even if you can't be bothered with cycle racing.
 
+1 for Spa if you care at all about car racing.

Also, being a Canadian, if you are interested in WWI history, Flanders would be quite a destination. Not sure if April would be poppy season though, maybe someone here can tell us?

Depending how far afield you want to go... you could easily train to Amsterdam or a million other places if you want to try other countries. Amsterdam is a stunning city with wonderful canals, lots of history (Anne Frank House jumps to mind), and *that* subculture if you're interested in that kind of thing. Also the home of Heineken. ;)
 
Thanks for all the input everyone.I'll be visiting neighbouring countries while there.I'll be landing in Brussels and going from there.I plan to take a week to 10 days and see some of belgium and spend the rest of time travelling to other countries.I've been to Europe before taking in some of Italy.
Keep all the good info coming.It's much appreciated.
 
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