Belgium has been home for just over two years, and while it hasn’t always been an easy transition from our former home of Berlin to Brussels, Belgium is a country with much to offer. Just as well, travel in a world still recovering from a pandemic and struggling with seemingly endless conflict and crisis, seems more fraught than I recall for many years.
It requires an immense amount of optimism to imagine that that will change in 2024. It’s quite possible another year might pass in which we don’t leave Europe on our travels but, if 2023 is anything to go by, exploring far and wide closer to home can be just as rewarding.
Learning to love Brussels?
I’m not sure it’s possible to love a city as badly managed as Brussels. It is a dirty, often chaotic, car-centric city, and home to some of the worst levels of inequality in Western Europe. It also has a crack epidemic that has been allowed to sweep through the city largely unchallenged. We are starting see the positives of life here, but for the moment our relationship with the city feels more like an uneasy truce.
Discovering Belgium by Bike
Elsewhere in Belgium, things were looking up. The discovery of the Fietsknooppunten system has opened up a whole new range of cycling options, especially in Limburg where they have gone out of their way to entice cyclists to the region. I’ve managed to explore some remote corners of the country that I may never have seen thanks to this ingenious system. Come the spring, I will be back on the bike ranging further afield.
Flanders Fields
One of the most moving places to visit in the entire country, this small corner of Belgium that witnessed the full horror of the First World War is today a wonderful region to explore. From Ypres, north to the coast and south to the French border, the landscape has been shaped by the conflict and is packed with reminders – from the ever present cemeteries, trench systems, and reconstructed towns – of the tragedy that unfolded in Flanders Fields.
Revisiting Belgian classics
We visited Belgium in the past, mostly to the classic Flemish destinations of Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent and Lier. By train most are little more than an hour from Brussels, and that has allowed us to take a more leisurely approach to exploring them. Bruges off season is still a magnificent place to visit, but Ghent and Antwerp are truly world class cities worth anyone’s time. Less well known, Lier is smaller but just as fascinating.
Off the beaten path, Belgian backwaters
While the Belgian classics are deservedly world famous, Belgium is full of small, historic places that are perfect to explore on day trips or weekends. Small medieval towns, often with one or two UNESCO World Heritage designations, are scattered around the country: Diest with a beautiful Begijnhof, Roman history in Tongeren, the medieval grandeur of Veurne, picturesque Dinant on the River Meuse, and ancient Thuin overlooking the River Sambre are all extraordinary places in their own right.
Back on the Maas in Rotterdam and Maastricht
It’s only a short train journey to be back in the Netherlands, the country that almost 10 years ago we called home for four and a half years. Despite the recent alarming election, a visit to the pulsating port city of Rotterdam, and a trip to Maastricht, the glorious history-packed capital of Dutch Limburg, reaffirmed why we have such good memories of our time there. Like Belgium, it punches well above its weight and we have plans for the north of the country in 2024.
From the English Coast to its highest hills
Recent travels to the UK have been largely confined to visits to family and friends, but last Spring we spent several days at a small fishing cottage on the English south coast. Despite serious social and economic challenges, the area around Hastings is packed with historic towns and villages (1066 and all that!), and some glorious countryside. Of which, a week of walking in the Lake District in the north was perfect for testing out recent knee surgery.
Roaming the Galician coast
We’ve only been to Spain’s Galicia region once before, and fell immediately in love with the hills and valleys of the Riberia Sacre and the beauty of its rugged coastline. A visit this summer to the area around the Bares peninsular, the villages of O Barqueiro and Viveiro, as well as the wonderful surprise that was the port city of A Coruna, have confirmed that this truly is a place apart – where history, natural beauty and incredible food blend perfectly.
Ancient history in Germany
The sadness of leaving Berlin too early in 2021 has perhaps prevented us from returning since. 2024 will change that, but we did go to some places we’d planned to visit before leaving Germany. Dusseldorf was a trip to see friends, but the history of its Kaiserswerth neighbourhood was a surprise. A drive down the Rhine brought us to historic Koblenz, while a random stopover in the perfectly preserved medieval town of Tangermunde was a real surprise.
Savoy lakes and Jura valleys
As fierce heat swept across Europe we headed to the lakes of Savoy in the hope of finding some respite from the soaring temperatures. It was a first visit to this region and, while Annecy and the mountain-ringed Lac d’Annecy are notoriously touristy, other parts of Savoy remain peaceful even in summer. Chambéry and Lac du Bourget were delightful, but even more so was the magnificent Jura region of France and the crowning glory, the town of Besançon with its Vauban citadel.
Weird and wonderful art
It has been a year of artistic discoveries as well. In Belgium we visited the bizarre chicken-themed Labiomista, and the sublime Folon Foundation in the forests south of Brussels. Rotterdam’s Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen was mind bogglingly fun, while A Coruna’s sculpture park on a bleak headland sticking out into the Atlantic was outstanding. On a different coastline, the soft Mediterranean light was magical at a celebration of spanish artist, Sorolla, in Valencia.
Culture and paella in Valencia
Deep into a Belgian winter of damp grey skies and occasional storms, we decided to head south for some much needed sun. Valencia was the destination, the trigger for it was the celebrations to mark the centenary of Spanish artist Sorolla’s death. Valencia turned out to be a truly wonderful city, with fabulous art and culture as well as a reputation for good food – paella originates near here. A week flew by and was enough to convince us that this part of Spain needs more exploration.
I expect it wasn’t easy to select the images from your collection but it was great. Plenty of tales to tell of unexpected encounters perhaps? Yes, see what we can while we can is my philosophy. All the best for 24, it could be a bumpy ride.
Bumpy is as good as we can hope for I think, but you never know! Wishing you a great 2024, whatever may come down the track.
A very eclectic year Paul. May 2024 be a good year. though the US election has me more than worried. Fingers crossed…
Tot ziens…
Fingers, toes and everything else crossed, Brian, I’m still not sure it’ll be enough. Have a great 2024, best wishes.