To Durbuy and the neighbourhood
After a good night sleep we find it hard to come out of the warm bed. It feels very cold inside the cottage and we put the heating on! Outside we see only fog and clouds, not much chance that the sun will come out, today.
First we drive back on the road where we came from yesterday to photograph Radhadesh, a 13th century castle which now is owned by the international Krishna community who renovated it. There are guided tours every day and we would like to have a look inside one of the next days.
But first we go to Durbuy, a small medieval city which calls itself the smallest city of the world. Maybe it was that one day, but a few decades ago, the government reduced the number of small communities, making the administrative centers larger and since then Durbuy has grown a lot and surely isn't the smallest city anymore with a few thousand inhabitants and lots of small villages that belong to it.
The old town is very small indeed and very nice. This time no crowds of tourists, we have picked the right time... A castle dominates the town and stands along the river Ourthe which gives its name to this valley, maybe one of the prettiest in the Ardennes.
We were here once before, in 2001, but then it was summer and very crowded. Now we almost have the town to ourselves. We have to go here at nighttime, it is probably nicely lighted for christmas.
After that we start touring through the neighbourhood. We pass through many nice villages and sceneries but the fog is becoming thicker and it is very difficult to make any nice pictures. But that doesn't matter, this time we have no intention of seeing and visiting 'everything'. We enjoy the ride and see where the roads lead us.
Malmedy is one of the bigger towns we pass through and lies on the edge of the Hautes Fagnes, the highest part of Belgium and a national park. There are several ski pistes here, although only a little snow has survived from the snowfall a few weeks ago. But we notice we are in real mountains, the roads are twisting and turning and sometimes they are quite steep.
This is a very beautiful area to drive through and, when it is warmer, to hike. Now we stay in our car and drive around, since it is almost freezing outside. On one of the crossings we see this sign: the guesthouse Ffawlty towers. We don't dare to enter...
It takes us some time to find it, but hidden in the woods, at a dead end, lies the Chateau Reinhardstein, a renovated 14th century castle. It is private property and inhabited throughout the year. When we walk towards it we see there are almost only Dutch cars parked there: some Dutch party going on?
© Teije and Elisabeth 2000 - 2012
Travel through Europe and Africa
with Elisabeth and Teije