What to discover in East Belgium?
Discover special places – a foray through villages and towns
The holiday region of East Belgium is in a 'green belt' on the outskirts of the Eifel and the Ardennes. With its varied landscapes, its well signposted cycling and hiking trails and its excellent gastronomic amenities, this holiday region is particularly popular with discoverers and gourmets.
The holiday region of East Belgium comprises eleven municipalities, some of which belong to the Walloon administration of Belgium, and some to the German administration. The extreme north, with the point at which the borders of three countries – Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands – converge, is just under 100 km from the southernmost point at the borders to Germany and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. With an area of 1036 km², East Belgium seems surprisingly large from a cultural, linguistic and culinary point of view.
The best known tourist destination is the High Fens, where a slate mountain ridge stretches skyward, reaching a height of 694 m. Not just because of its geological elevation, this conservation area constitutes a bridge between north and south. But many of the small towns and villages have also retained their character to a greater extent, and have an incredible range of local cultural events and attractions to offer.
On a foray through East Belgium, it becomes clear how charming and inviting the villages and towns are. There's a great range of new experiences that opens up to the visitor if he or she is open to them. Whether it's history or culture, nature or architecture, half-timbered houses or bluestone, meadows or woodland, fortress or manor house, church or chapel, railway or leisurely cycle touring path, each of these places has its historical, scenic, cultural and social peculiarities.
In the more recent past, many of these places have worked hard to give themselves a level of quality all their own: they reinforce their singularity, their own special character with a range of regional specialities that includes organic bread and Ardennes ham, spirits and beer, and organic food such as cheese and other high-quality dairy products. The whole of this range 'made in East Belgium' demonstrates the entrepreneurial elan and the wealth of culinary ideas in East Belgium on the one hand, and the high-quality gastronomy on location with its very own East Belgian 'fragrance' on the other.
