Maredsous

On Sunday, crossing fingers the weather would be ok (i.e. no rain) we left home for Maredsous, which Abbey is famous for its beer and cheese.
We drove all the way through Wallonia and along the Meuse river and arrived there shortly after noon. We visited the church: nothing special about it, just a classical neo-gothic church. Did get some pictures still :)
The church


The abbey


The choir



A tree (obviously tortured)

From inside the church


We then headed to the Saint-Joseph center where we had lunch. Basically most people each there a tartine, i.e. 2 slices of bread with butter and cheese or ham (of course the ones from the Abbey) while drinking some Maredsous beer.




The big surprise for us was that we found lots of people visiting the site. Somehow we were expecting to find a small abbey in the middle of nowhere with 3 tourists visiting (us) but found a very frequented area. The terrace where people had lunch or a drink never emptied throughout the afternoon, nor did the parking lot. Obviously it’s one of the key destinations for Sundays.
After lunch we went for a walk in the countryside around the abbey which was very relaxing. I think I will buy a guide with the small hikes you can do in Belgium and give it a try on the week-end. Nothing big, just 2-4 hours walk in the countryside.

We got back to the car before it started to rain very strong and drove back to Brussels. We finished the day with a waffle at Dandoy’s.