Saturday morning promised a nice, sunny day. I walked to Wittmer’s patisserie to pick up pain chocolate and croissants while Rita made delicious hot cocoa. After breakfast, Rita and I rushed through any clean up tasks we had remaining in order to get on the road. There was an “American” grocery store in the Antwerp suburbs that Rita wanted to check out so we got in the Explorer and headed north on E-19, arriving in about 30 minutes. We only had to stop once for directions in the village of Wilrijk and soon found Grare, the American Foodstore only it was closed. We were about to get some lunch when the owner came to the door to let us in. He spoke very good English and said his mother opened the store 31 years ago. There’s probably a story there but we didn’t get it. We could find most of the items he carried in our military base commissary. But there were a couple of items that Rita has wanted and so we picked up a package of New York H&H bagels and some chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. No, this isn’t some kind of fusion cuisine!
From Wilrijk we headed southeast on highway N-10 a short distance to the town of Lier, which Michelin awards two stars. We parked the car and walked into the town center looking for a restaurant (with toilets). Always thinking of our needs! We found several in Zimmerplein, a small square with a very old tower at each end, the Zimmer Tower and the Prisoners’ Tower. Lier still has some of its 16th century walls, most of which have been turned into esplanades and edged with a canal. We chose an ordinary café called Delfin. We ordered two local beers first – St. Gommarus triple – which tasted great. Rita ordered a cheese and ham omelet and I had goulash. If the cook was Austrian, he forgot his paprika. The goulash was good but mild while Rita’s omelet with frites was probably better. The beer was the winner.
We walked to the Zimmer Tower named after “the great clock and watch maker, Zimmer” according to Michelin but apparently Mr. Zimmer didn’t have a first name. The tower has a very nice astronomy clock made in 1930, so it isn’t very old. The clock has 57 dials showing the lunar cycle, tides, zodiac and main planet movements. I think the time was in there somewhere too. Next we walked to the old Prisoners Tower and into the Grote Markt or Big Market – usually a big square with ancient buildings surrounding it and a market in the middle on certain days of the week. In this part of Flemish Belgium it is called Grote Markt while in French Wallonia parts of Belgium it is the Grand Place. In Brussels both languages and names are used. Lier’s Grote Markt has the old Stadhuis (state house), an 18th century structure with more than 3,900 panes of glass in its windows.
We stopped at a bakery and each had a Lier tartlet known as Lierse vlaaikens. It was small, sweet and had cinnamon. That’s enough for Rita. Next we walked to St. Gummarus, a Gothic church built between the 14th and 16th centuries. Our guidebook says Philip the Handsome married Joanna of Castile here in 1496. Do you think anyone will remember Madonna’s wedding (any of them) 500 years from now? But with a name like Philip the Handsome, how can you lose!
The highlight of the church, which Michelin gives two stars, is the white stone rood screen made in 1536. It really is ornate and beautiful and overpowers the rest of the church. There are also some nice 15th century stained-glass windows and a Rubens triptych to boot. We walked along the Kleine Nete River that flows through the middle of Lier and saw some pretty houses and bridges. Next we walked to the Begijnhof, a small, walled village within most old Belgium towns where the nuns lived. Begijnhofs were a sort of nunnery or convent where the sisters lived as nuns but without taking vows and with the right to return to the secular world. They were usually widows or women whose husbands ran off and they lived in these little villages until recent times. They were popular in Belgium and Holland in the 15th and 16th centuries. All of them are tidy, well-kept villages with cobble streets and, in the case of Lier, with old pumps scattered around the village.
The clouds started coming in and it was getting late in the evening so we left about 4:00 in the afternoon – we had other important things to do. This weekend was the Chocolate Passion weekend and the chocolate fair was in the Petite Sablon park area just a few blocks from our house. We parked the car in our basement garage, unloaded our purchases and headed to Petite Sablon on foot. We bought our tickets and entered the temporary exhibit rooms to an array of Belgian chocolate makers. Some booths were run by the well-known commercial companies like Nestle and Mars (yes we have M&Ms here). Other chocolate makers that we knew (Godiva, Neuhaus, Corne, Leonidas, Tasse, Pierre Marcolini, and Debailleul) and some new to us (Van Dender, Jacques, and others) were offering samples. We shamelessly pushed those little kids out of the way and helped ourselves to more chocolate than we should have. We took some home if they were wrapped. There was chocolate sculpting, edible chocolate jewelry, celebrity handprints in blocks of chocolate on auction – you get the picture. After only about an hour and a half we walked home and could not eat any dinner. We watched a DVD and had some popcorn later on for our dinner. We didn’t get our five fruits and veggies today!
Sunday we woke (with a chocolate hangover) to cloudy but dry skies. Yesterday was Flemish north and today was the French Wallonia part of Belgium in the south. We headed southeast on motorway E-411. In about 45 minutes we were in Namur, the political capital of Wallonia. Namur is in a great setting at the confluence of the Sambre and Meuse rivers. There are hills rising up around the Meuse Valley on both sides of the river. The gigantic Citadel overlooking the city, which was the center of many battles, dominates Namur. In Roman times Julius Caesar attacked the Aduatuci here. Other major battles took place in Namur in 1577 (Don Juan of Austria), 1692 (Vauban and Louis XIV), 1695 (William III of Orange), 1746 (Louis XV), 1792 (French Revolutionaries), 1914 (WWI) and 1940 (WWII). So you may not want to buy any real estate in this town.
We walked around the old town through narrow streets closed off to traffic. Since it was Sunday morning, there were very few pedestrians as well. We saw the beautiful Baroque church, St. Loup, built from 1621 to 1645. We crossed the Sambre River and walked up to the Citadel with great views of the Meuse Valley and the Pont de Jambes bridge over the Meuse River. A great spot to take photos. After more walking in the old town we decided to get into the car and drive along the Meuse River towards Dinant.
We drove through Wepion, known locally for its strawberries, but not this time of the year. Just past Profondeville we crossed the Meuse into the town of Godinne. We climbed higher and higher over the hills past ancient farmhouses built of stone. Some were huge and in a square or U shape almost like forts. There were signs along the road claiming it to be the “Circuit Charlemagne” so I guess he traveled in this area. It wasn’t far from his home in Aachen, Germany. In the little town of Crupet we took photos of a pretty 12th century manor house and then looked for a place to eat.
The place we first came across was called Café Restaurant de la Vallee and had carved stones claiming part of the building was built in 1583. We were the youngest diners, too, this establishment being popular with the senior set. Very senior set – we heard two ladies at a table behind us telling their ages as 89 and 86. The food was adequate but not great. We started with cream of leek soup. Next we both had local mountain trout, which were good, but a little greasy in a pool of butter. Frites and a meager salad of lettuce again rounded out the meal along with a bottle of house white, which tasted good. It was like eating in someone’s house – two elderly sisters cooking and waiting, their husbands sitting in the bar drinking and a terrier dog running around our feet as well as in and out of the kitchen.
We drove to the small town of Spontin where we walked to the back of the Chateau de Spontin for photos. It was a nice chateau, started in the 12th century and modified up to the 17th century. The River Bocq flows through town and all around the chateau as well. These places are not open yet so we could not tour the insides.
On we pressed back to the main road, across the Meuse River again and on to Dinant, another Michelin two star town. This is another town right on the Meuse River with a citadel towering over the town high on a rock. Also noticeable is the collegiate church Notre Dame. Dinant is also known as the town where Adolphe Sax was born. You know him – he invented the saxophone and we saw a giant saxophone stature as we passed through town. It was getting late in the day so we saved Dinant for a future trip and headed back to Brussels via the motorway once more.
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