Day 2 Brussels and Dinant
After tired of walking almost 12 hours the other day, we decided to take it a little bit slow. Well, it doesn't mean that we're gonna wake up late, it's a big no no when you only have 2 days to travel. We woke up around 8ish, get some breakfast and catch the 9.30 train to Brussels. I'm not gonna tell a lot about Brussels, because I think I've explained enough on my previous post about Brussels. But I saw something that I haven't seen on my previous visit to Brussels, something special. Yup, I saw the King of Belgium and the royal family. The Cathedral in Brussels was very crowded that day, and there are some people bringing Belgium flag, so we asked the people around, and they said that the King is here. To be honest I didn't know which one is the king (Sorry....) but I managed to take some pictures of some people that might be important
After a short visit in Brussels we continue our journey to Dinant. It takes 1.5 hour from Brussels to Dinant. Dinant is a Walloon city and municipality located on the River Meuse in the Belgian province of Namur, Belgium. The name Dinant comes from the Celtic Divo-Nanto meaning "Sacred Valley" or "Divine Valley" and can also be translated as "Celestial Gorge" or "Luminous Gorge". Dinant is also known as the city where the inventor of Saxophone (Adolfe Sax) used to live. First stop is always the tourist information, where you can get free map and the idea about what to do here. Dinant is a really small city, so it doesn't take to long to explore the city and everything is within walking distance. After we made a stop at the tourist information we decided to explore one of the caves in Dinant, "La Merveilleuse" or the marvelous. This cave was found in 1904 by the workers during the construction of the road near the railway station. They managed to recognize its stalactites and after informing the landowners, he decided to explore it from the inside. They managed to finish in several hours and the first visitors of the cave admitted its beauty. And at this time Grotte La Merveilleuse was considered the most fascinating cave among tourists. To enter the cave you have to pay 7euro/person. The temperature inside the cave on summer is around 10-15 celcius, so prepare some warm sweater before you get in. The fee is included guided tour for 50 minutes, available in 3 language, English, French, and Dutch.
After we finished exploring the cave, we went back to the city center to enjoy the view of Dinant. On the bridge, you can see row of Saxophones, each Saxophone represent a country. On the other side of the river you can also see the Notre Dame de Dinant. The Collegiate Church of Our Lady (French: Collégiale Notre Dame de Dinant) is a 13th-century Gothic cathedral. The Church replaced a 10th-century Romanesque church which collapsed in 1228, leaving only the North door, though its most iconic part is the separate, 16th century pear-shaped bell tower.
Yup that's the end of our journey. Before we leave the city we stop by at one of the snack bar, well I don't know if it's because I'm hungry and tired, but the frietjes really taste good, and I also order Frikandel Special, but instead of using fresh onion, they use the baked one, which is tastier.
We had a little drama on our way back home. We decided to take the last train from Dinant, but apparently someone in our train didn't have the ticket, so we had to wait almost 30minutes until the police come and secure that person, which means we missed our connection train to Etten-Leur. We asked the conducteur (the guy who works in the train) to help us, and he said we'll managed to catch our train connection in Brussels, because there's some delay there. Luckily when we got in Brussels the train was still there, so we ran to the platform, and hop on the train, but the train was empty and everybody were just standing on the platform. So, we got off the train and asked people. Apparently the train was on fire (there's a smoke or something like that), so everybody needs to go out which means everybody that needs to go to Netherlands will miss their train. Long story short after lots of drama they gave us a taxi voucher that take us to Roosendaal, but since Etten-Leur is only 15minutes from Roosendaal, we asked the driver to take us there instead. Woohooo, we only 30 minutes behind the schedule and we were brought to our front door.
Conclusion
The Journey to Belgium was pretty nice. We had lots of fun, but yeah it was tiring. We only spend 63euro/person all included. 2 days are enough to explore 4 cities (if you're crazy like me). But I'd love to go back to Brugge when everything is still open. My suggestion is never take the last train, because you never know what might happened ;)
After tired of walking almost 12 hours the other day, we decided to take it a little bit slow. Well, it doesn't mean that we're gonna wake up late, it's a big no no when you only have 2 days to travel. We woke up around 8ish, get some breakfast and catch the 9.30 train to Brussels. I'm not gonna tell a lot about Brussels, because I think I've explained enough on my previous post about Brussels. But I saw something that I haven't seen on my previous visit to Brussels, something special. Yup, I saw the King of Belgium and the royal family. The Cathedral in Brussels was very crowded that day, and there are some people bringing Belgium flag, so we asked the people around, and they said that the King is here. To be honest I didn't know which one is the king (Sorry....) but I managed to take some pictures of some people that might be important
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After a short visit in Brussels we continue our journey to Dinant. It takes 1.5 hour from Brussels to Dinant. Dinant is a Walloon city and municipality located on the River Meuse in the Belgian province of Namur, Belgium. The name Dinant comes from the Celtic Divo-Nanto meaning "Sacred Valley" or "Divine Valley" and can also be translated as "Celestial Gorge" or "Luminous Gorge". Dinant is also known as the city where the inventor of Saxophone (Adolfe Sax) used to live. First stop is always the tourist information, where you can get free map and the idea about what to do here. Dinant is a really small city, so it doesn't take to long to explore the city and everything is within walking distance. After we made a stop at the tourist information we decided to explore one of the caves in Dinant, "La Merveilleuse" or the marvelous. This cave was found in 1904 by the workers during the construction of the road near the railway station. They managed to recognize its stalactites and after informing the landowners, he decided to explore it from the inside. They managed to finish in several hours and the first visitors of the cave admitted its beauty. And at this time Grotte La Merveilleuse was considered the most fascinating cave among tourists. To enter the cave you have to pay 7euro/person. The temperature inside the cave on summer is around 10-15 celcius, so prepare some warm sweater before you get in. The fee is included guided tour for 50 minutes, available in 3 language, English, French, and Dutch.
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| Grotte La Merveilleuse |
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| Hall at The Cave |
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| Inside the Notre Dame |
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| Dinant |
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| Saxophone Rows |
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| Me and Stephan |
Yup that's the end of our journey. Before we leave the city we stop by at one of the snack bar, well I don't know if it's because I'm hungry and tired, but the frietjes really taste good, and I also order Frikandel Special, but instead of using fresh onion, they use the baked one, which is tastier.
We had a little drama on our way back home. We decided to take the last train from Dinant, but apparently someone in our train didn't have the ticket, so we had to wait almost 30minutes until the police come and secure that person, which means we missed our connection train to Etten-Leur. We asked the conducteur (the guy who works in the train) to help us, and he said we'll managed to catch our train connection in Brussels, because there's some delay there. Luckily when we got in Brussels the train was still there, so we ran to the platform, and hop on the train, but the train was empty and everybody were just standing on the platform. So, we got off the train and asked people. Apparently the train was on fire (there's a smoke or something like that), so everybody needs to go out which means everybody that needs to go to Netherlands will miss their train. Long story short after lots of drama they gave us a taxi voucher that take us to Roosendaal, but since Etten-Leur is only 15minutes from Roosendaal, we asked the driver to take us there instead. Woohooo, we only 30 minutes behind the schedule and we were brought to our front door.
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| Lunch Time |
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| Chaos in Brussels |
The Journey to Belgium was pretty nice. We had lots of fun, but yeah it was tiring. We only spend 63euro/person all included. 2 days are enough to explore 4 cities (if you're crazy like me). But I'd love to go back to Brugge when everything is still open. My suggestion is never take the last train, because you never know what might happened ;)