What's our first impression of Belgium?

Oops! We got our travel days out of order. We went to Belgium after Luxembourg, and then went on to Germany. Sorry!

As we traveled across Europe, we were on a bit of a schedule. We had a couple places where we had to arrive at specific times, but the rest of the time we were winging it. We wanted to see as many new places as possible, and to check off some new countries that we have never visited before. One of those new countries was Belgium. We used our Eurail pass to hop on a slow regional train to take us through Luxembourg and into the neighboring country of Belgium. There was no border sign or any reason for a passport check as we passed from one EU country to another. From looking out the train window at the tall green trees and occasional grass pastures sprinkled with cows and sheep, we had no idea when we crossed into Belgium.  While we would have preferred to visit one of the more well-known cities, they were not on our route. So we stopped in Liege, Belgium, for an overnight stay. What was our first impression of Belgium on this quick visit?

As our train rolled into the Liege train station, our first impression was great. This brand new state-of-the-art station was striking with its bright overhead roof.

We walked across the street from the station to check into our overnight hotel. The slower regional train took over two and a half hours to get to this destination, and it was almost 6:00 p.m. when we arrived. But we were determined to get a taste of Belgium this evening. So we dropped off our bags, and took off on a walk.

Our walk took us along the Meuse River that divides modern Liege from its much older medieval city.

We were staying on the medieval side, hoping to find the lovely old churches that the city's web-site described. Since this was not a city usually visited by international tourists, we found less information on-line. But we did find the Liege Cathedral as we wandered the streets in the evening. While it looked good from a distance, we noticed that it didn't look like it was well cared-for up close. The doors were locked this evening, so we didn't get a chance to see the beautiful inside to get a better first impression.

The second church on our local map was not nearly as well-preserved, and we didn't even take a pictures. Likewise, the third building on our list seemed more of an eye-sore than a tourist attraction. Our first impression was that Liege had some old treasures that were decaying for lack of preservation.

We found an occasional well-kept old building, but we weren't getting a very good first impression. We realized that we were visiting a working town that most international travelers ignore. But we also felt like we got a more accurate look at Belgium than if we had stayed in a little touristy village.

While visiting Belgium, don't you have to eat a Belgium waffle? We found a little shop in the square that was open for business this evening. While they had a dizzying list of options listed in a language we couldn't decipher, we finally managed to order a waffle. We continued to walk as we waffled our way around Liege.

One of our destinations was the Montagne de Bueren. That's the name of the stone staircase in the heart of the old town. That's 374 steps we climbed to get to the top.

Even though we were getting tired, of course we had to walk up every one of those steps. We weren't the only ones on the stairs this evening. We tried to stay out of the way of the photographer taking wedding pictures of the bride and groom.

It did give a nice view of Liege, including the very modern city across the Muese River.

By the time we got back to the bottom of the Montagne de Mueren, it was getting late. This was a college town, and our first impressions led us to think that we didn't want to be out after dark. We were still three kilometers from our hotel, and we were getting tired and hungry. We realized that we had walked over 13 miles on this day. Our tired legs might have given us less than a perfect impression of Belgium. We think we owe it to this country to return some day and get another first impression.