Weekends in Belgium & Luxembourg

One of the Troc Stores we visited

On the weekend of May 5^th and 6^th Ryan and I made a spur of the moment weekend trip to Belgium with another couple. This was my first visit to the beautiful countryside of Belgium. We spent most of our Saturday going to Troc stores in and around the city of Liège, which is just across the German border. Liège is the third largest city in Belgium and a two-hour drive from our home. Ok…. So what is a Troc store? These are Europe’s second hand stores. You can find anything from lamps to couches and antiques to modern furniture. We found several pieces for great prices. One of our best purchases was and antique cabinet we purchased for €20 or $25 USD. 
 On Sunday we made our way over to the city of Tongeren. This is the oldest city in Belgium where we could see the old Roman wall around parts of the city. Here we walked thru an antique flea market. This flea market runs every Sunday year round. We enjoyed looking at all kinds of neat items and even made a couple of purchases. One of our purchases was an antique buffet made of solid Oak. We spent €60 or $77 USD on this piece of furniture and found it to be in excellent condition. The only problem was we found it to be too large to fit in our car. We were able to make arrangements with the seller to hold it for us until we were able to come back and pick it up.

Gate to Henri-Chapelle Cemetery

On our way back to Wiesbaden we stopped and spent sometime in the Henri-Chapelle American WWII Cemetery.  The Cemetery and Memorial spans 57 acres and has 7,992 graves of soldiers who lost their lives during WWII.  This was Ryan’s first visit to a military cemetery and a first for both of us to visit an American military cemetery on foreign soil. On the west end of the memorial we were able to enjoy an overlook with an excellent view of the rolling Belgian countryside. One would never know this countryside, now covered with lush grass and farms, was once a battlefield.

Henri-Chapelle Cemetery

Henri-Chapelle Cemetery

 

Our view of the Belgian countryside from the memorial

 On the weekend of May 11^th and 12^th we made our return trip to Tongeren to pick up our furniture. This time we took a different route and made the trip into more of a sightseeing adventure. On Saturday we drove through Luxembourg, which is a new country for both Ryan and I. Outside the capital Luxembourg City we stopped at the Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial. This American cemetery spans 50.5 acres with a burial area containing 5,076 soldiers whom lost their lives in the Battle of the Bulge. The city of Luxembourg served as the headquarters for General George S. Patton’s. Per his request General Patton is buried in Luxembourg Memorial Cemetery.  After visiting the American cemetery we explored a German WWII cemetery, which was in close proximity to the Luxembourg cemetery. We noticed a huge difference in the two cemeteries. The American cemetery had neatly manicured landscape and each soldier has a white cross marking his or her gravesite. In the German cemetery all of the stones are dark and military looking. The gravestones mark the graves of 4-5 German soldiers’. 

Luxembourg Cemetery

General Patton's grave

German WWII Cemetery

Gravestone marking several German Soldiers

After leaving the cemeteries we headed for a city named Dinant, Belgium. The city’s landmark is the Collegiate Church of Notre-Dame with foundations dating back to 1227. In the city of Dinant we toured the Leffe abbey, which was, founded 1152. Like many monasteries across Europe, the monks of the abbey brewed ale. Using knowledge passed from generation to generation and ingredients found in the wild near the abbey, a unique ale developed and brewed only at the abbey. We enjoyed learning the history of the abbey. On Sunday we made our way back to the Tongeren flea market to pick up our furniture. After spending some time at the flea market we made our way back home.

Leffe Abbey and Brewery

Dinant Collegiate Church of Notre-Dame

Our Belgian Purchases