Category Archives: Belgium

Brussels to Fontoy, France

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Day 23     Monday, September 22, 2025

We are driving to Fontoy, France but we have a couple of stops planned on the way.  The first stop is Dinant where we visit a cave called La Grotte la Marveilleuse, or The Wonderful Cave. We are given a brief description of the route we will be taking inside the cave as it is self-guided. We walk down several flights of stairs and are surprised how big the cave is and the variety of formations we see.

Some of them are very impressive. There are some rather large stalagmites

This white limestone formation is called The Glacier. There are stalactites of all sizes hanging from the roof and walls of the cave.
The interesting thing is that this is actually a living cave.  There is water dripping from stalactites and landing on stalagmites. It takes centuries for these formations to show appreciable growth…only about 10 centimetres over a thousand years!
This is the biggest cavern, called the Grande Salle. The railings look like wood but they are actually made of reinforced concrete made to like tree branches.

Even with the little bit of light from this small bulb moss starts to grow.

More stalagmites and stalactites.

This cave was discovered in 1904 by workmen making a road. They uncovered a small cavern, and reported their find to the land owners.  Realizing the tourist potential of this discovery, the owners added electricity and gradually the railings and stairs. In 1934 a long tunnel was constructed that connected the cave to another exit so that visitors did not have to retrace their steps to leave the cave.  During the Second World War 300 townspeople hid in this tunnel to escape the Germans.   We are 95 meters below the surface!
At the end of the tunnel we climbed this long stairway with 120 steps to the exit.  There are about 350 stairs to climb on the whole tour along with many long downward sloping walkways. We enjoyed our tour of this cave. It is strange to think that we were so far underground and neither of us felt at all claustrophobic.

Dinant is an interesting little town, situated along both banks of this river.  It is also where Alphonso Sax invented the saxophone in 1840.

The Citadel high above the town looks interesting but we don’t have time for a visit. Back on the road headed towards Rocheport.

We drive over this pretty bridge and find a spot to park for tea and cookies in Rocheport and then we go for a little walk before heading towards our next Airbnb at Fontoy, France.

Every town, no matter how small, has a church, but this is the first church I remember seeing that has flower baskets by the entrance door.  

This is a an interesting building. We think it might be a single family dwelling as there is only one house number on the building.

This strange statue is of a popular Belgium comedian, Raymond Devos (1922 – 2006) who is supposed to be popping out of a box, like a Jack in the box.  I thought that he had his feet in a cement block, like gansters used!

I liked the flowers at this intersection but then we see the poster below showing the damage to this area on Christmas Day 1944.

I loved the colours of these leaves. We see a truck with beautiful ochre coloured sand and then peek inside this building under renovation to see what it is being used for.  Not exactly a do-it-yourself job!
The doorway that we looked into is right next to this house with the gorgeous red geraniums.

It is rush hour and there are ‘Deviations’ which mean detours and lots of traffic.  We count 153 trucks in a row that are not moving at all on the highway.  Thankfully they are not going in our direction!

We see these huge crosses along the highway near the end of our trip, but I am unable to find any information about them.

Quiet Day In Uccle, Brussels.

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Day 22     Sunday, September 21, 2025

Our bnb is in a municipality of Brussels called Uccle. Brussels is the capital of Belgium, the headquarters of the European Union, and the headquarters for NATO. Bob went for a walk today and saw several embassies.  There are 183 embassies in Brussels and Bob counted 17 embassies within a ten block radius of our bnb.
This is the Hungarian Embassy.

The Ukrainian Embassy…

…looks like an apartment building.

The Russian embassy is on a huge estate that is two blocks long.  No building in sight but lots of security cameras and some white swans in the pond.

There is an Equestrian Centre right in Uccle.

The Rose Farm was built at the beginning of the 13th century and given to the town in 1971. It was restored, and is now used for cultural activities

Bob walks through part of Wolvendael Park on the way home. There is a School of the Arts located in the park.

I stayed home, rested and worked a bit on my blog.  I discovered something interesting.  If I open my blog from the email that is sent out to those who follow my blog many of the photos are distorted and appear stretched out. So if you are having this issue on your cell phone just think of the email as a notification that there is a new post and type trudymason.com in your browser rather than opening the email and trying to look at the post there.  This has something to do with the way I am editing my photos but I am not able to figure out how to change it so this doesn’t happen. I still have a lot to learn.

We leave for Luxembourg tomorrow and the weather isn’t looking very great.  So far this trip we have only had two sunny warm days…maybe that is just what it is going to be, cooler and wetter than we would like… but we can’t do anything about the weather.

Ypres, Flanders Fields Museum, Belgium

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Day 20     Friday, September 19, 2025

Today we visit the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres, Belgium.

This museum uses a variety of displays to tell the story of the invasion of Belgium in World War I. There are holographs which use actors to tell the stories of actual people.

The total number of military and civilian casualties in World War I was about 40 million: estimates range from around 15 to 22 million deaths and about 23 million wounded military personnel, ranking it among the deadliest conflicts in human history. But it wasn’t just people that suffered during this war. More than 8 million horses, donkeys and mules died in WWI as well.  Such a horrendous loss of life!

These early gas masks provided some protection against chlorine gas, which was used for the first time during WWI,  but were only effective for about five minutes with concentrated doses of the gas. 

We take a break and climb 231 steps to reach the top of the bell tower. half way the steps change from a concrete spiral staircase to these metal steps, which are a bit scarier to climb.

We are always amazed at the size of the bells in these bell towers.

Soon we are outside taking in the views of the town and countryside.

We can see for miles.

I am very happy that the 231 steps down from the tower are cement.  I really didn’t like those metals ones.

After the clim to the top of the tower we have lunch and chatted with this Belgium couple who like to travel on their colourful bike.  We were surprised as they were both quite elderly.

Back in the museum.  There were lots of photos and film clips from the war.  They bring the horror of the war to life.

The bottom photo shows the damage done to the building that now houses this museum.  It was rebuilt after the war.

Men sleeping in closely packed conditions underground.  

There were displays of the full kit worn by soldiers from the countries that fought in the war. The first display with the kilt is from the Canadian Black Watch Royal Highland Regiment.These banners are for John McCrae’s poem “In Flanders Fields”.

A closer look reveals that there are photos of soldiers hidden in the poppies.

Taps is played at 8:00 every night at the Ypres Menin Gate memorial.

This memorial is engraved with the names of more than 54,000 officers and men whose graves are not known. I feel emotional when viewing these lists of those who died but were never found and buried.

Walking back to the car we pass a gallery with these amazing porcelain sculptures by Bénedicte Vallet.

Next stop is the Essex Farm Cemetery where the Canadian doctor, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae wrote his now famous poem “in Flanders Fields” after seeing poppies growing in battle-scarred fields. The poem was written in memory a friend who died at Ypres,  We pass some windmills on the way to the last cemetery we will visit on this trip.

Tyne Cot cemetery, located near Ypres, is the largest Commonwealth cemetery in the world and a memorial to the missing soldiers of World War I.  It contains the graves of 11,956 Commonwealth soldiers, primarily from the Battle of Passchendaele.

So many graves and 8,367of them are unidentified British or Commonwealth servicemen.

The wall in the background of this photo is engraved with the names of the 35,000 soldiers whose remains were never found or identified. One last stop at the Canadian Memorial which commemorates the actions and sacrifices of the Canadian Corps during the First World War’s Battle of Passchendaele. 

“The Canada Gate is the second of two linked ‘Portals of Remembrance’. The first is The Last Steps Memorial Arch, marking the spot in Halifax Nova Scotia where 350,000 Canadian soldiers took their last steps in Canada before embarking on ships for service overseas in Belgium and France during the First World War. For thousands, their last steps in life were taken here at Passchendaele. For those who survived, their lives were forever changed.”~ veterans.gc.ca

Another heavy duty day.

Waterloo, Belgium and the Defeat of Napoleon

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Day 19     Thursday, September 18, 2025

We are on the road by 10:00, heading to Waterloo which is the site of the famous Battle that ended Napoleon’s French Empire. The roads can be challenging to drive. Many are fairly narrow and today we share the road with trolley cars, automobiles, trucks, motorcyclists and bicyclists! There is a lot to pay attention to and Bob its doing an amazing job driving.  I am usually a good navigator but I didn’t have the best night and today we get to Waterloo in spite of my navigating!! The Wellington Museum was easy to find and there was free parking nearby.  The museum is located in the building that the British Duke of Wellington used as his headquarters when he defeated Napoleon at Waterloo in1815.  The soldiers uniforms displayed are, from left to right, the French Carabiniers, the British Light Dragoons and the British 8th Hussars.

The museum has a room with weapons used during the Battle of Waterloo.

A lot of artwork, paintings and information about the battle and even the death mask of Napoleon which I find rather unsettling.

The French troops had to forage to survive, and many soldiers died of disease, malnutrition and exhaustion brought on by the extremely difficult conditions they endured.  Meanwhile the French generals travelled with dining sets that included items like crystal containers and silver and gold plated egg cups and spoons!

Soldiers were treated by amputating injured limbs to prevent gangrene. This is a typical surgeons kit for amputations which were performed quickly without anaesthetic and in five minutes. The saws and other medical equipment were not cleaned between patients so the post operative mortality rate was very high.

If you survived the amputation and had enough money your prosthetic leg could look like this.  I imagine most common soldiers made do with some sort of simple wooden peg leg.

We cross a patio to enter another part of the museum and are surprised to find a huge Playmobile exhibition titled ‘A History of Empires’.  There are 16 display cases, each depicting a different time in history.

The war between Julius Caesar and the Gauls in 54 B.C. Rome’s first race course built in 599 B.C.

A naval Battle but I don’t remember which one.

The Roman Coliseum. We really enjoyed this unusual exhibit and marvelled at the thousands and thousands of Playmobile figures and accessories that were used to create these dioramas. This very old St. Joseph Church from 1690 is right across the street so we had a look.

The area under the dome is huge and the church itself has large columns on either side of the nave. We have visited many churches and Cathedrals on our travels, but they are all so different from one another.  

The road in front of the Church is cobble-stoned and we can see the depressions in the road made over the years by cart wheels.

I adore these white and pink small daisy-like flowers.  No idea what they are called but wish we could grow them back home.

Next we drive to ‘The Lion’s Mound’ which is located at the site of the Waterloo Battle. This earthen cone is 169 m in diameter and 41 m high. An enormous lion, 4.50 m long, 4.45 m high and weighing 28 tons is located on the top of the mound.

It symbolizes the victory of the monarchies; its open mouth is turned towards France, defeated; its paw resting on the terrestrial globe represents the peace that Europe has won. Bob went for a walk all the way around the  mound but I was tired and it was cold and windy so I stayed in the car. We hit rush hour on the way home. I am so glad I am not driving!

Visiting Brussels

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Day 18     Wednesday, Sept 17, 2025

We have fairly relaxing morning. We call our bank and sort out an issue with our debit card and last night we had to call one of our Mastercards because it got blocked…because we are in Belgium.  Yet they don’t want to know that we are travelling anymore!  So it caused problems when we tried to add it to our Apple Wallet.  Same thing has happened to our other Mastercard, so we still have that to sort out tonight. I guess we should have done some things before we left home…like putting our email address as the contact to verify our cards when we  use them online instead of it being our home land line!  But who knew?

Once we sorted that out I worked on my paper journal, drawing some animals at the Lille Zoo from photo reference.  Not as much fun as drawing at the zoo but it was cold and windy and we didn’t have a lot of time there.  Drawing from reference photos is a good way to familiarize myself with the shapes and anatomy of animals and birds. This helps when I am able to draw at zoos in person. I set a time limit for a page so that I don’t spend too long. It is more like drawing live that way.

We catch the train into downtown Brussels which involved a 20 minute walk because in order to use Brussel’s busses or trolley cars you need to have a contactless debit card or use Apple Wallet. Our problem is our Debit cards should work after we called the bank last night to sort out the problem, but they still don’t, so we can’t use them. My MC won’t load onto Apple Wallet because of problems trying to verify it! So we walk to a train station were we can buy a paper ticket. Unfortuntely there doesn’t seem to be any place near us to purchase paper tickets for the bus or trolley cars.  

A half hour later after a very smooth rain ride we arrive in Brussels.  First stop is to see the Mannekin Pis Fountain.  It is the most famous fountain in Brussels.  The last time we visited this little statue was 46 years ago on our first trip to Europe. 

I used to have the cutest little wooden plaque with sculpture of the Mannekin Pis but somehow lost it. I wanted to buy a new one…well that sure didn’t happen! All the souvenirs were incredibly tacky, and ridiculously expensive as you can see in this photo.  So no souvenir for me.  We did buy two postcards to send to our grandchildren and after we left the store the owner chased me down about a block away from the store.  He insisted that I had stolen one of the key chains that we had been looking at. He said he had it on camera, so we went back to the store and I told him, in French, to look at his camera. I said that I am not a thief and that I didn’t even touch the key chain he was accusing me of stealing. I am sure I looked guilty, I felt hot and I am sure my face was red. After a few minutes of conversation and looking at his security footage he admitted that he made a mistake and apologized. We chatted a bit more, and all was well. I shook his hand and said I understood how hard it must be when he does have people steal from him almost every day.  

We see one of the big pink sculptures that we saw all over Paris two years ago. The enormous  candy-pink sculptures created by Philippe Katerine are now on display in Brussels.

The Grand Palace Plaza is surrounded on all sides with very ornate buildings…

….including the City Hall…

…and the Brussels City Museum.  I am done in and need some tea and pastries. I think being accused of stealing was rather emotionally exhausting. It wasn’t easy to find a coffee shop. We had to walk several blocks but found one with a quiet table away from all the smokers.  We had a pot of mint tea with real mint leaves and the most delicious croissant and Portuguese tart.  

We pass a shop with these ‘toy’ cars in the window. The white and red car are €219.90 each, and the green and orange ones are ‘only’ €579.05 each!  This is $941.61 Canadian! I wonder who buys these expensive model cars.

The Cathedral Saints-Michel-et-Gudule is another enormous cathedral. 

The Nave stretches into the distance. The statues on the pillars are the Twelve Apostles. There are many stunning stained glass windows surrounding the ornate altar.

This sculpted scene called ‘Entombment’ is beautiful. Cathedrals often have amazing art work.

The pulpit is an intricately carved wooden masterpiece.

We are hungry and head back to this little square to buy some of Brussels famous frites with mayonnaise.  No photo, we were hungry and they were gone in no time. Bob is walking towards the train station.

We took a wrong turn on our way to the train station and discovered this enormous white Smurf. Of course we needed a photo!

I had a little rest beside several of these beautiful flower towers.

On our walk from the train station back to our apartment I see another sign that Autumn is coming.  It is still unseasonably cool for this time of the year. 16 Celsius and windy.

There are many very large houses along the walk home.  This one has its own magnificent tree.

We have never stayed in a neighbourhood with so many large houses…maybe mansions would be a better term?

There is such a variety of styles. Some traditional and some more modern looking.

This is the lane behind our bnb, which has a huge corner lot. This black cat was determined to cross my path as we returned from getting groceries, but I figured we had enough challenges for the day so I managed to avoid him!

Our bnb has its very own little robot lawn mower…it the cutest thing as it maneuvers itself about the yard cutting the grass.