The listening tours
Have a look at all eavesdropping tours and choose your route.
East Belgium becomes a cinema for your ears
Three 'listening tours' take you through the region – with your smartphone
Discover history and nature in a completely new way: these innovative audio tours stage-manage exciting destinations in the region as an imaginative audio experience – presented by historical experts from the region. From the gold rush on the Amel to the Gothic art of the Eifel or traces of the Battle of the Bulge – as from now, the varied history and culture of the border region can be experienced by listening. Each tour comprises 11 stops relating to a wide range of themes and can be explored by car or by bicycle. The accompanying brochure contains descriptions of all the routes and detailed maps which take you from one listening point to the next.
What are listening tours?
The little stories that make places so special. The surprising discoveries in nature and at the wayside. And exciting background knowledge that stays in your mind. That's what these listening tours are about. Why is German spoken here? Who turned the fortresses into quarries? And what about that extraordinary bluestone? With these listening tours, the Tourist Agency East Belgium aims to make history come alive – for locals and guests alike. These tours appeal to people of all ages. An ideal companion for all individualists who wish to discover the East Belgian towns and villages in their own time.
What do listening tours have to offer?
Having said that, the listening tours aren't only intended to clue you up; they're supposed to be fun as well. The imaginative settings with mysterious ghost voices, speaking trees and hissing steam locomotives take care of that.
For these audio programmes, which sound like live radio reports, a large number of people from the region were interviewed. So it is that members of the historical society and the museum 'Between the Fens and the Schneifel', two artists, a gold washer and many others get a chance to speak. And on the Buchenberg near Rodt, there's even an interview with a particularly old contemporary witness: a 500-year-old beech tree!
How do the listening tours work?
Just load the free listening tour app for iOS and Android devices on to your smartphone. Then select the tour you want to go on (East Belgium 1, 2 or 3), and off you go! The app takes you from listening point to listening point by GPS.
> listening tour app on Google Play
> listening tour app in the App Store
Listening tour Burg-Reuland
Reuland castle folk, the Gothic art of the Eifel, and fast stagecoaches
'The pearl of East Belgium' – that's the affectionate name Willi the tour guide uses to refer to his home municipality. You too can let yourself be captivated by this magnificent landscape and its history: the demise of the fortress and the flourishing of a new social stratum all the way up to the unique Gothic art of the Eifel. And why was the post just as fast in the 19th century as it is today? You can learn about that here too.
Length: 20.4 km | Duration: approx. 3 hrs.
Listening tour St. Vith and Amel
Brave inhabitants, blue stone and gold fever
St. Vith – a town marked by history, which was almost completely destroyed in the Second World War. Here you can learn all about the carpet bombing and the will of the people of St. Vith to survive. In Recht you'll encounter the unique bluestone, in Rodt we have an interview with a centuries-old beech tree, and be careful: on the river Amel, gold fever is rife. And it's catching!
Length: 46 km | Duration: approx. 4 hrs.
Listening tour Bütgenbach and Büllingen
Hydroelectric power, smugglers' tricks and the Ardennes offensive
From mysterious traces of the Romans to scenes of the Second World War: on this tour you can immerse yourself in the eventful history of a border region. Experience the traces of the Battle of the Bulge at close quarters, listen to smugglers' tales, and find out why the Eifel authoress Clara Viebig is still honoured in Manderfeld to this very day. But first, get yourself acquainted with a particularly steadfast piece of history: the dam in Bütgenbach.
Length: 54 km | Duration: approx. 4-5 hrs.
