Liège is the second-largest city in the French-speaking region of Wallonia in Belgium, and the fifth-largest city in…
Times visited: 2
Cities visited: Gent, Brussels and Liège
Towns visited: Baarle-Hertog
UNESCO sites visited: 4/16
My first time entering Belgium was back in 2012, during a bus trip to Paris. I remember passing through Brussels and being struck by its giant steel buildings, which felt a bit soulless to me. Beyond that, I didn’t really have any lasting impressions of Belgium at all. But for Easter 2022, I finally decided to visit Belgium properly.
I teamed up with my younger brother and three friends, and over five days, we explored three cities. We stayed in an old monastery in Gent, wandered its historic streets, discovered that Brussels is way more than just steel skyscrapers, devoured the most delicious vegan waffles, and completely fell in love with Liège.
2,5 years later, during a road trip in November 2024, I swung by Belgium again for a quick visit – this time to one of the country’s quirkiest towns. Baarle-Hertog is a Belgian enclave surrounded entirely by the Netherlands, but the weirdness doesn’t end there. Within the town itself, there are tiny pockets of Dutch territory, meaning some streets, houses, and shops are literally split between the two countries! It was an absolutely fascinating place to spend a day exploring.