Namur: Thurs 29 – Sat 31 Aug: Accommodation
Thurs 29th Aug
It was forecast to be another warm and glorious day in Ghent for our departure. Mark set off for an early ride and I went on a walk before meeting up for a coffee at the delightful cafe below our apartment, Merveilleux.
We had some time to kill between checking out of our apartment in Ghent and checking in at our hotel in Namur so we stopped off at Leuven along the way. GPSmyCity had two different self-guided walking tours for this area and so we took the Leuven city highlights version. Leuven was a very picturesque city and seemed quite sophisticated and has the claim to fame of being the home of Stella Artois beer. The city was extensively damaged with the bombing during both World Wars but was painstakingly rebuilt after WW2. When you see some of the spectacular Gothic buildings in the attached photos you will understand what a remarkable feat of rebuilding this was.
It was 3 pm by the time we made into our hotel room and it was a complete joy to be able to park right outside the building and be on ground level making for an easy unloading of luggage.
We didn’t have a lot planned for the afternoon but one activity involved a kind of treasure hunt. Looking for tiny statues, posted at random places around the city, by the Spanish artist Isaac Cordal. So after dropping our bags and settling in, off we set on our hunt. There are supposed to be around 40 of these tiny statues placed around the city but, after tracking down the first six on our map, Mark had the calling to visit a beer hall that I had listed on our itinerary. Les Chapitre, is noted as being the oldest beer hall in Namur and this, quite fortuitously for Mark, just happened to be located near statue number 6.
Our statue hunt gave us an opportunity to take in Namur and, I have to say, I was a little underwhelmed. It lacked all of the visual appeal and sophistication of the other cities we had thus far visited. The other thing I picked up on rather quickly was that people were less polite and less willing to be of any assistance, bordering on being rude. There was basically no comprehension of English here, in the shops cafes, restaurants or pubs and even at our hotel reception. Not that understanding English is a benchmark by any means but just a huge contrast to everywhere we’ve been so far where people have seemed to enjoy impressing us with their multilingual skills and ability to help us inferior beings who only have the one language. Also, there was a noticeable shift to grunge dressing, which was quite a contrast compared to our recent city visits as well. I cant recall which of us had picked this destination to visit, we were both blaming each other, but thankfully we only have two nights here.
We were ambivalent about eating out but decided to go with one of the suggestions I had found when doing my research and that proved to be a great choice. Le Temps Des Cerises was a wonderful choice offering a quaint setting and delicious locally inspired dishes. The restaurant was a Bouchon-style venue where the focus is on hearty home cooking and they make use of all parts of the animal. Mark chose the signature pork dish but was somewhat surprised to find the snout of poor Babe served up on his plate. My fish dish was less confronting but absolutely delicious. It was a wonderful evening of great food in a delightfully humble venue, excellent for people watching and is a restaurant I would highly recommend.
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Fri 30th Aug
It was an overcast morning but not raining so we set out for a morning walk and, although it took much searching, we managed to find an open cafe for Mark. The weather was much like the Tump campaign….weird. We’d been in shorts and t-shirts the day before but both need to rug up today. Me in long pants and a puffer jacket! I’m definitely getting through the contents of my large bag!
The first part of the day was spent visiting the Citadel, perched high on a hill across the water which we accessed by way of the cable car. There has been a fortress, of some sort, on the Citadel site since Roman times but the area was given back to the city as a tourism site in 1978, with the military only departing the year prior. We spent the best of 4 hours at the Citadel as there were three main activities to take, along with the cable car ride there and back. You need about an hour for an audio guided historical overview at the Terra Nova visitor center, about 30 min for the audio guided train ride around the site and then about 75 minutes for the guided underground tunnel tour. The underground tunnel tour was particularly impressive as they had video display image renderings at various parts along the way to supplement the explanation provided by the guide about the historical significance of the tunnels throughout the many wars and sieges. The Citadel is a must-do activity if you’re ever in Namur and, in fact, is the main driver of tourism to the city.
It was almost 2.30 pm by the time we made it back down to town so we explored for about another hour before heading back to our hotel to rest our legs. Unlike Ghent and Breda, there was no abundance of attractive bars and cafes to draw you in for a drink and so we just went back to the hotel, much to mark’s chagrin.
It was after 5 pm before we headed back out again and our first destination was a Beer Cave, La Cuve a Biere, for Mark to have a pre-dinner drink. How surprising! I’ll tell you what was surprising though. It was a Friday afternoon, after work, and the city was basically deserted. We don’t know where everyone else was but they weren’t milling around the city and they weren’t at the Beer Cave. There were a few, there but not many, however Mark enjoyed it so that was what mattered. From there we went on a restaurant I had found recommended and this was Vivo. It was a lovely setting and the host was a young and very charismatic local guy and the food was absolutely amazing. This is one place I would definitely recommend if you were ever in Namur.
It was a much better day today, despite the overcast weather, as the visit to the Citadel was so impressive. I would not say that Namur is somewhere that you must visit but, if you ever do, then one full day is plenty to enable you to see all the main attractions. Our hotel was good, not great, but in a very good location for exploring the city and we loved the huge room size at 60 m2 and these were the two main reasons for choosing this particular hotel. We head off tomorrow and make our way to Luxembourg.
