quokk

Leuven to Tervuren

2020-06-19T11:57:38+02:00

Saturday the 13th of June was a wonderful day, at least as far as the weather was concerned. I had recently bought a new mid-range touring bike, and so it was a good day to try it out a little over a relatively short distance, but longer than the typical shopping commute.

GPS data of photos I took

A little to the east of Brussels lies Tervuren, which, along with its adjacent towns and villages, was and to an extent is typified as the retreat of a (French-speaking) bourgeoisie and nobility next to the bustling capital. Tervuren has a very nice and large public park with an abundance of ponds, the remnants of a hunting grounds of the dukes of Brabant in the 12th century, and has been used by nobility and royalty for centuries, up until the later 19th century, when Leopold II constructed a “Colonial Palace” on the ruins of the old royal pavillion built by a Dutch prince before the Belgian revolution.

This “colonial palace” in Tervuren was built as an extension of the Brussels 1897 international expo. Leopold II was keen on the construction business, so keen in fact he was long known as the “Builder-King”. Well, it’s easy to find funds for renovation projects when you have the resources and inhabitants of a huge swath of land in middle Africa to mercilessly exploit in the most horrific ways as your private property to fill your personal coffers, I suppose. In any case, this part of the exposition proved quite popular, and so it became a permanent colonial museum one year later in 1898. The original museum got cramped, calling for more construction funded by the colony. The new museum would be inaugurated under Albert I in 1910, when Congo had already ceased to be the king’s private property and instead became a colony of the Belgian state. These days the museum is called the AfricaMuseum.

Leopold II, colonialism and its atrocities are of course a hot topic right now in Belgium¹, in an international wave of longstanding but only now really broadly considered criticism of colonial pasts and their relations on modern anti-racism efforts. Leopold II statues and reminders of the Congolese colony have long been controversial, with a statue of a mounted Leopold II only being removed quite recently from the Tervuren museum’s premises, but many remain in place to date.

So this was one of the destinations that crossed my mind when I was coming up with a nice 1-2 hour cycle trip.

Leuven

Let’s start from Leuven with a couple of generic city centre sights, shall we?

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The two iconic buildings on the Grote Markt are the extremely gothic old town hall, and the newly renovated St. Peter’s church. Both the town hall and the church lack towers, because at the time of construction, the swampy soil prevented such ambitions. Consider the gothic extravaganza as a way to compensate.

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Two churches on the Naamsestraat on the way.

The Great Beguinage

A beguinage is similar to a convent, except that the women it houses aren’t nuns but beguines, who are lay sisters. In the south of the city centre of Leuven, there is a historical quarter which is a wonderfully preserved former beguinage, now property (like so many sites) of the university KULeuven, which uses it as a housing campus for (a select few) students and internationally visiting scholars. Other than its housing function, it’s also a favoured nice and quiet date spot.

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Arenberg campus & castle park

Leaving the city centre from the beguinage, you find yourself at the edge of the Arenberg campus and castle park in Heverlee, named after the noble family the House of Arenberg, an important one in Belgium and other European countries, who inherited the domain and others in the 16th century from the original noble overlords of Heverlee, the De Croy family.

Just like the great beguinage, this too is a university campus belonging to KULeuven². Here you will find much STEM research, as well as sports grounds. If you would like to go for a kayak ride on the Dyle river, there is a kayaking starting point here. Not the most exciting of waterways, perhaps.

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Bertem – Leefdaal

Between Leuven and Tervuren and its boroughs (like Vossem) lies Bertem. I didn’t take a whole lot of photos here, but the Leefdaal castle in the Leefdaal borough should be worthy enough.

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Tervuren

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Before Tervuren proper is the borough of Vossem³. See if you find anything unusual in this nice small town terrace café setting.

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Tervuren is connected to Brussels by a tramway. I’ve always liked the Tervuren tram station, surrounded by trees.

Park of Tervuren

The park of Tervuren is 207 hectares in size and encompasses a load of ponds, shrubs, lawns, a little restauration, even some valuable ecology where the birches are concerned. At the edge of it is the AfricaMuseum, with the old Colonial Museum building and the Colonial Palace pavillion adjacent to the new museum building. A lot of scientific research is conducted here.

As I mentioned in the introduction, there used to be a statue of a triumphant mounted Leopold II on these premises, which has been removed a couple of years ago. In the park, however, is still a bust of Leopold II, under three Congolese warriors and flanked by a lion and an elephant with a peacock on rear guard duty. As far as I could see there was no destruction during the recent protests here, just some slight vandalism where someone tagged the bust with “FDP”⁴. The mayor of Tervuren has argued against removal, pointing out it’s a monument that’s supposed to be anti-colonial, which is indeed in line with the interpretation of the AfricaMuseum itself:

The title, ‘The Congo I Presume’, is a parody on the words Henry Morton Stanley famously pronounced upon meeting David Livingstone, i.e. ‘Dr Livingstone I presume?’

The sculpture group is installed in a water feature and refers to the African village that was built near the water during the 1897 colonial exhibition. Seven Africans died from pneumonia during this exhibition.

The sculptures in the water feature evoke this Congolese village, which also exhibited exotic animals and native Africans.

The stone blocks are a reference to King Leopold II’s nickname, the ‘King-Builder’

The elephant and the lion symbolise Congo’s magnificent nature and the abundant natural wealth beneath its soil.

The eight flamingos, which are migratory birds, symbolise the Congolese diaspora.

Amid this evocation of nature the artist has installed the bust of Leopold II, the owner of Congo Free State, whom the Congolese consider the undisputed “Father of the Nation”.

Behind the bust a peacock graciously spreads its wings, as the epitome of vanity, megalomania and hubris.

The elephant looks away from the bust, as if to symbolically distance himself from the legalised ivory robbery, with which Leopold II shamelessly enriched himself.

The lion, the king of all animals, also pointedly looks the other way.

Three African warriors, in stunning tribal costumes, stand behind the king, like humble, obsequious soldiers. They are “exhibited”, as the king’s three personal trophies.

Interestingly the feet of these brave warriors have been chopped off in a clear reference to the darker side of colonisation.

This sculpture group is the only anticolonial statue in Belgium and is therefore unique. – AfricaMuseum

Some of this explanation makes sense! It’s a bit of a pity, though, that the plaque placed by the author is terse and monolingual, the above text is only available online.

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Bonus video: an African goose⁵.

Personally I am waiting for all the ways in which Belgium mistreated Congo in the post-colonial era to become topics too. Our involvement in Mobutu’s dictatorship and the assassination of Congolese president Patrice Lumumba aren’t really brought up much, let alone Congo as a colony of the Belgian state, it’s generally limited to the horrible atrocities in Congo Free State. ↩︎
Rather than one huge campus, the university is basically interwoven with the fabric of the city when it comes to the centre with faculties spread out all over it. Arenberg is one of their big campus-like campuses. ↩︎
Trivia: I helped inventarise the municipal archive of Vossem from roughly the French occupation to the beginning of the 20th century. ↩︎
“Fils de pute”, son of a whore. ↩︎
These popped up out of nowhere half a decade to a decade ago in our parks, and since then their presence has only increased. ↩︎

Snow in the High Fens: Soaked, but actually.

2020-06-19T09:56:33+02:00

Intro

On the 9th week of 2020, it finally snowed in Belgium. In Leuven, where I live, it all melted within the day. I had been waiting for snow to fall all winter, so despite Covid-19¹ spreading across the continent it was time to put on my boots and go back to the highest regions of the country in the hopes I’d see some nice wet white. My biggest concern was the prospect of the little pathways being full of people with the same idea, but turns out only the immediate area at the main road’s pitstops like Signal de Botrange were really full.

The photos

Now, time for about 50 photos.

The Jehova’s Witnesses are a dedicated bunch.

Tea and care at Baraque Michel

Remember how I said I got soaked last time? Little did I know. This time, I actually fell into ice-cold water to my upper thighs repeatedly, basically due to the same mistake I made last time coupled with the snow obscuring everything even more.

After I managed to get back to the main, intact path, I still had about 20 minutes to walk until I got back to the road cutting through the High Fens, at Baraque Michel. I went to the road restaurant and asked if I could warm and dry myself up. The manager, who was serving behind the counter, led me to a backroom, gave me an old pair of leggings to wear, a towel to dry my legs and put my cold soaked pants in a drying machine. My toes were blue but I could feel them, so I guess I wasn’t in immediate danger ². I ordered some black tea while waiting and charged my phone (which had run out of battery a bit before that).
The manager returned with my dried pants, she also gave me old socks and two plastic bags to put over my feet to protect them from the totally drenched boots. When I wanted to pay, they refused. I tried to insist on paying for the tea at least, but was told to just come back and order food next time I’m in the region. Which I certainly will; so this is a shout-out to the staff at the Baraque Michel restaurant, thank you.

Photo of the Baraque Michel restaurant, from December

Unbeknown to me at the time, but as it turns out, Eupen, the city I stay in when I’m in the region, was having the first Covid-19 contamination case in Belgium occuring in someone with no travel history to Italy or China. Oops. ↩︎
Yeah I don’t know how hypothermia works, this is my guess. ↩︎

February 08, part 2

2020-06-19T09:56:54+02:00

The High Fens

The High Fens (french: Hautes Fagnes, German: Hohes Venn, Dutch: Hoge Venen) are a bogland in Eastern Belgium which form a combined international natural park together with the Eifel in next-door Germany. What looks from a distance like mossy grassfields is actually a very wet swampy terrain.

Example of the water streaming throughout the bogland

The conditions of the wooden pathways you’re seeing here are often pretty bad. In 2011 a fire also wiped out a few of them. As I wrote in the previous post, I took a wrong turn somewhere because I was expecting a pathway to re-appear, to get lost for a moment meaning I had to walk through the marshland to the nearest point I could recognise, a forest’s border that I knew had a path, which is how I ended up spending a disproportionate amount of time on a short stretch stumbling from moss heap to moss heap, falling knee-deep into the water.

Last stretch to Signal de Botrange

Passing an old Belgian-Prussian border stone, this stone is one of several relics of the old border located in the otherwise empty Fens, hence one map landmark’s name, “les trois bornes”, a point with three of these border stones nearby .

Straight onwards to the Signal from here, it’s just beyond the clearing/path on the hill.

When I then finally arrived at the Signal de Botrange, I noticed the bus back to Eupen. Rather than stopping to take a photo of the little tower that marks the highest point of Belgium, I made a run for it so I wouldn’t have to wait an hour for the next one.

Bonus

The dinner I had that night as a bonus feature.

February 08, part 1

2020-06-19T10:58:25+02:00

I took too many damn photos to squeeze into one article, so until I get better at selecting, this day will be split in two articles.

Intro

On the weekend of the 6th week of 2020 I had some small plans; I wanted to get some walking in on Saturday at the High Fens and a little visit to Aachen on Sunday to do some locality-specific shopping. Storm Ciara was predicted to hit that same weekend, in other words a great time to go hiking. Fortunately the storm wasn’t really forecast to hit until Sunday afternoon, so no need for a change of plan.

A few weeks ago I walked from Eupen (Belgium) to Monschau (Germany) in a more or less straight line across the Getzbach, keeping north of the Monschauer Strasse, which is a main road cutting through the nature reserve between those cities. This time I went less far east and kept south of the Monschauer Strasse to the Signal de Botrange, but somewhere along the way I took a wrong turn and …

Anyway.

Eupen

Starting position was again Eupen, the largest German-speaking city in Belgium.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a good shot of a squirrel that doesn’t want to sit still? It actually jumped from tree to tree but I wasn’t able to capture that, so this badly lit photo will have to do.

Some creative architecture. The house in the last of the following three photos is for sale by the way, hit me up if you want the real estate agent’s number :wink:.

From left to right, the flags of Eupen, the European Union, the German-speaking Community of Belgium, and Belgium.

Into the forest

I will be following the forest alongside the Hill river, the former natural border with Prussia. This is a region full of old border stones, such as this one.

Small dam

Came across a small dam with the most alluring foamy water, but sadly bathing was not permitted :sad:.

Further to the Hilltal

Hilltal, the Hill valley.

First instances of ice.

Bonus: a quick video.

Upcoming article: the second leg of the hike, down south from the Hilltal to the Signal de Botrange.

New Years Day 2020

2020-06-11T11:14:07+02:00

Intro

Just like last year, I again decided to try and start the year off well; like an instantly applied New Year’s resolution.

There is a Catholic site of pilgrimage nearby, and I decided to hike the odd 30 km passing some other landmarks. I won’t say whether or not it really affected my lifestyle in 2019, but at the end of the day I was tired and satisfied, save for the few days I spent afterwards as a semi-cripple because I was wearing regular old worn out shoes. So, for 2020 more of the same, and more or less the same basic trajectory. But with adapted boots.

This year, it was extraordinarily foggy.

I started from the Michotte park. This small park was previously a castle domain which since had its castle torn down and its domain gifted to the municipality. From there through Kessel-Lo onto the first landmark, the Vlierbeek Abbey.

Michotte

Heuvelhof, site of the former town hall of Kessel-Lo, now a borough of Leuven.

Vlierbeek Abbey

The abbey already ceased to function as an abbey in the 19th century, having not recovered from its abolition under the French revolution in the 18th.

With graveyard.

A nativity scene.

Leaving the abbey and walking towards Holsbeek.

Horse in the fog. This will be a theme..

A little bout of nostalgia.

A 17th century Mary chapel.

A more modern rendition of this ubiquitous Catholic characteristic

I told you horses in the fog would be a theme, didn’t I?

Castle of Horst

Next landmark is the Castle of Horst (Dutch: kasteel van Horst). This castle is also the model for the home base of the comic book character De Rode Ridder (The Red Knight). It’s also a popular destination for school excursions, and one of its taglines seems to be, uh… “a real castle”.

Behind the castle lies a park domain.

Kids don’t pay attention to castles and stories of knights unless there’s a plaque informing you what their hobbies were.

Lunchtime.

At this point I was basically halfway there, but my battery was running out, so from this point on I’ve only taken a few photos. You’re missing out on a few vinyards for example.

Scherpenheuvel

So uh, yeah. When I arrived in Scherpenheuvel my phone’s battery had completely died, but because it felt a bit dumb to not take any photo at all at the destination, I charged and revived the phone at a restaurant and took a shot of the basilica’s façade at night.

The basilica is the most important place of pilgrimage in Belgium, which did play a part in my decision when picking a destination for the New Year’s walk.

It was constructed on the order of the Archduke and Archduchess of Austria, Albrecht and Isabella, who ruled the Southern Netherlands (≈ modern day Belgium) in the name of the Habsburg dynasty and were quite important to its history.

There’s a lot to show inside, with its many interior chapels and rooms, but, well, yeah.