Nieuwpoort in West Flanders

24 May 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  9 minutes

Nieuwpoort on Yser river © Marc Ryckaert/cc-by-3.0

Nieuwpoort on Yser river © Marc Ryckaert/cc-by-3.0

Nieuwpoort is a municipality located in Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium, and in the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Nieuwpoort proper and the towns of Ramskapelle and Sint-Joris. On 1 January 2008 Nieuwpoort had a total population of 11,062. The total area is 31.00 km² which gives a population density of 350 inhabitants per km². In Nieuwpoort, the Yser flows into the North Sea. It is also the home of a statue created by Jan Fabre called Searching for Utopia. The Stadshalle Grain Hall (market hall) with its belfry was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999 as part of the Belfries of Belgium and France site, owing to its historical civic (not religious) importance and its architecture.   read more…

Sainte-Adresse in Normandy

2 January 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  5 minutes

Beach huts © panoramio.com - corinne potet/cc-by-3.0

Beach huts © panoramio.com – corinne potet/cc-by-3.0

Sainte-Adresse is a commune in the Seine-Maritime department in the region of Normandy, France. A coastal suburb situated some 2 miles (3.2 km) northwest of Le Havre city centre, at the junction of the D147 and the D940. The English Channel forms the western border of the commune.   read more…

Aalst in Flanders

25 February 2021 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  8 minutes

Aalst City Hall © EmDee/cc-by-sa-4.0

Aalst City Hall © EmDee/cc-by-sa-4.0

Aalst is a city and municipality on the Dender River, 31 kilometres (19 mi) northwest from Brussels in the Flemish province of East Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Aalst itself and the villages of Baardegem, Erembodegem, Gijzegem, Herdersem, Hofstade, Meldert, Moorsel and Nieuwerkerken. Aalst is crossed by the Molenbeek-Ter Erpenbeek in Aalst and Hofstade. The town has a long-standing (folkloric) feud with Dendermonde (north along the river), which dates from the Middle Ages.   read more…

Sablon in Brussels

24 August 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  11 minutes

Rue de Rollebeek © Michel wal/cc-by-sa-3.0

Rue de Rollebeek © Michel wal/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Sablon or Zavel (Dutch) is a neighbourhood and hill in the historic upper town of Brussels in Belgium. At its heart are the twin squares of the larger Grand Sablon (“Large Sablon”) square in the northwest and the smaller Petit Sablon (“Small Sablon”) square and garden in the southeast, divided by the Church of Our Blessed Lady of the Sablon. The Sablon neighbourhood was remodelled in the 19th century as Regentschapstraat was driven through the area, creating a Haussmann-style artery between the Royal Palace of Brussels and the new Palace of Justice. The new street skirted the church: all buildings immediately adjacent to it were demolished starting in 1872, opening up new views of the church. Buildings not directly adjacent to the church were renovated and improved.   read more…

Verviers in Wallonia

17 August 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Le Grand Théâtre © Johan Bakker/cc-by-sa-3.0

Le Grand Théâtre © Johan Bakker/cc-by-sa-3.0

Verviers is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Liège. The Verviers municipality includes the old communes of Ensival, Lambermont, Petit-Rechain, Stembert, and Heusy. It is also the center of an agglomeration that includes Dison and Pepinster making it the second biggest in the province and an important regional center, located roughly halfway between Liège and the German border. Water has played an important role in the town’s economy, notably in the development first of its textile and later tourist industries. As a result, many fountains have been built in Verviers, leading it to be named Wallonia‘s “Water Capital”. The seats of the two Walloon public institutions for water distribution and water treatment are located in the town.   read more…

Dinant in Belgium

24 April 2020 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

© flickr.com - Andrew J.Kurbiko/cc-by-sa-2.0

© flickr.com – Andrew J.Kurbiko/cc-by-sa-2.0

Dinant is a Walloon city and municipality located on the River Meuse, in the Belgian province of Namur. It lies 90 kilometres (56 mi) south-east of Brussels, 30 kilometres (19 mi) south-east of Charleroi and 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of Namur. Dinant is situated 20 kilometres (12 mi) north of the border with France.   read more…

European Historic Thermal Towns Association

19 April 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Architecture, EU blog post series, Bon voyage, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  11 minutes

Gellért Baths in Budapest © Joe Mabel/cc-by-sa-3.0

Gellért Baths in Budapest © Joe Mabel/cc-by-sa-3.0

The European Route of Historic Thermal Cities is a Cultural Route of the Council of Europe. The route is supported by the European Historic Thermal Towns Association (EHTTA), founded in 2011, a nonprofit organization with currently 26 members in 11 European countries (including Turkey). In the spring of 2013 EHTTA was awarded the “Cultural Route of Europe” by the “European Institute of Cultural Routes”. The Press Office of the City of Baden-Baden calls the European Route of Historic Thermal Baths the European Bathing Route. Under the title Great Spas of Europe, some of these cities have been included in the UNESCO World Heritage.   read more…

Jubilee Park in Brussels

15 March 2019 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions Reading Time:  9 minutes

© Marc Ryckaert/cc-by-3.0

© Marc Ryckaert/cc-by-3.0

Parc du Cinquantenaire (French for “Park of the Fiftieth Anniversary”) or Jubelpark (Dutch for “Jubilee Park”) is a large public, urban park (30 hectares) in the easternmost part of the European Quarter in Brussels.   read more…

International Crisis Group (ICG)

20 June 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, European Union Reading Time:  8 minutes

The International Crisis Group (ICG; also simply known as the Crisis Group) is a transnational non-profit, non-governmental organization founded in 1995 that carries out field research on violent conflict and advances policies to prevent, mitigate or resolve conflict. It advocates policies directly with governments, multilateral organisations and other political actors as well as the media.   read more…

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