Amazing Belgium

On this roof in the City of Antwerp, you will find trees, hedges, an English cottage, a dovecote, and even a sheep stable with different kinds of animals. Jan and Kristina Engels have made a perfect compromise between the city and the countryside in their home on the fifth floor. Their roof bears an English cottage complete with trees, hedges, and a real conservatory. The stable dwellers complete the rural home: sheep, chickens, and ducks trot against the backdrop of the Antwerp cathedral right in the center of the city. Picture Google Maps On Google Maps aerial footage, it looks like a small city park. But whoever stands at their door encounters the facades of a 5 story high warehouse from the 1930s. "This is our heaven", say the residents. It's got the best of two worlds, The busy city life and the harmony of nature and tranquility.

The Yorkshire trench & dug-out is a restored trench near the city of Ypres with entrances and exits from a 1917 'deep dug-out', just as it looked during the horrors of the First World War. You just have to imagine the stench of the dead, the poor hygiene, the bombs, and the mud. They were terrible places for soldiers who often stayed in them for months in all weather conditions. Picture by Pixabay Today you can take a walk through the area through a series of information panels and the original floor plan of the dug-out. It shows you the trench warfare of soldiers in the great war. The horror of a horrible time becomes visible to the visitors. The trenches are freely accessible every day in the Industrial Zone alongside the Ieper-Ijzer Canal Address: Bargiestraat, Ieper.

Opposite the Galerie Royale Saint-Hubert in Brussels, on the Grasmarkt and near the Grote Markt there is a Panos sandwich shop that has been there for years, but the facade of the building has a certain historical value. There you can see the relief of the Belgian flag. Just below it, there is a memorial plaque with the sentence: "On August 26, 1830, Mrs. Abts made the first two Belgian flags here." In others words, this is the place where the first Belgian flag was born. Picture by Pixabay To better understand Belgium's independence, we have to go back to the summer of 1830. In July of that year, there was a revolution in France. The people revolted because the economy had been bad for a while. The dissatisfaction spread to Brussels because the economic situation there was not good either. The people in Brussels were also very unsatisfied. On August 25, an opera was played in the Munt theater in Brussels in honor of the Dutch king, who at that time was also the king of

The Laeken cemetery in the Brussels-Capital Region is the oldest Brussels cemetery with medieval monuments and tombs. The funerary architecture is roughly equivalent to the style of the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris. The choir of the old Church of Our Lady is still preserved in the cemetery of Laeken. You will find one of the copies of The Thinker on the grave of art collector Jef Dillen, made by Rodin himself in 1881. In the 19th century, the town of Laeken became a favorite of the Belgian nobility and bourgeoisie, who came to enjoy the peace and the wide beautiful landscapes. The Belgian royal family also settled here and still lives there today, in the castle of Laeken. Many prominent Belgians are buried here, especially from Catholic backgrounds. You will also find the graves of some 125 Belgian soldiers who died in both world wars. Picture by Dirk De Nil In the middle of the 19th century, Emile Bockstael devised an inventive solution for the lack of space in the Laeken cemetery

Take off your shoes because Flanders' first and most beautiful barefoot path is located in Lieteberg, Limburg, Belgium. Clamber, plod and climb in water features and over sandhills. Picture by Pixabay Have you always wanted to know what it feels like to walk around barefoot in the great outdoors? Then come and discover this barefoot path and experience the ultimate feeling of freedom. Lieteberg has the honor to offer you this experience. Use all your senses and both feet to perceive the special stimuli of wood, stones, tree chips, grass, clay, and water on a carefully composed course. Cold and warm, humid and dry, pleasant and stimulating alternate on a route of almost 3 km, which is only accessible barefoot. More information about the barefoot path can be found here .

The farm of Caillou was Napoleon's last headquarters. It is located in Vieux-Genappe, about 5 kilometers from Waterloo. It is the only Napoleonic museum in Belgium. The museum comprises four rooms with paintings, engravings, and weapons from the 19th century. You can also see the emperor's camp bed, the skeleton of a French hussar, and Napoleon's death mask. Picture courtesy of the museum It is here that Napoleon prepared his plans for his attack in Waterloo on the night of 17 June 1815. The farm was set on fire by the Prussian army after the battle at the time but was then renovated by the owner. In the ossuary in the garden are the bones that were collected from the battlefield. Inside the museum, you can use a video guide system that gives you a realistic picture of the soldiers, the impressions, and the atrocities of the Battle of Waterloo. More information about the farm and its museum here . You can find the farm at this address: Chaussée de Bruxelles 66, Vieux-Genap