May 13, 2024. Brussels - day trip to Dinant & Luxembourg

We were up early for breakfast at our hotel. We didn’t get to bed last night until close to midnight due to delays flying out of Dublin and delays in Brussels because of a thunderstorm. We walked to the Brussels Central Station by the Hilton Hotel in less than 15 minutes, for the meeting place by 7:50 a.m., for our day trip to Luxembourg. The sky was sunny with light scattered cloud, temperature 22°C and a bit of a wind.

There were two guides, one for the 19 Spanish speakers and one for the 35 English speakers. We shared a coach for the three drive to Luxembourg City and back to Brussels. The bus was driving through Brussels by 8:15 a.m.

We got commentary in Spanish and English. Belgium has three official languages - French, in the south, Dutch in the north and German in the East.

The coach travelled west out of Brussels. We passed wind turbines and cattle in the fields as some cloud started to pop up. There was a 90 minute stop to explore Dinant, Belgium. It is the town where Adolphe Sax was born, but he spent his childhood in Brussels. He invented the saxophone. Brass is made from copper and zinc.

Dinant, Belgium is located on both sides of the Maas River with only two or three streets running parallel to the river because of the rock faces either side. Our guide, Bruno, took us on a walking tour showing us the cable car access to the Dutch Fortress (or there was a stone staircase carved into the rock that looked like hundreds of steps). At the bottom of the mountain in the town was the 13th century church with its pear shaped tower, Collégiale Notre Dame. Its other distinctive feature is the gigantic stained glass windows by Gustave Ladon installed in 1903. Some of the town was destroyed in 1466 by a rock slide. On August 15, 1914 German soldiers invaded the area killing 675 people. One of the defending soldiers who was wounded that day was 25 year old Charles de Gaulle. There is a statue of the young soldier by the bridge. There has been a bridge in this location since Roman times, occasionally the bridge is swept away during severe flooding. In 1573 the bridge was swept away taking with it the town hall which had been built on the bridge. The bridge is decorated with larger than life saxophones. They have colourful designs from different European countries. Germany was only added in 2001.

After the walking tour we had an hour to wander around the area near the bridge and church. A few streets away from the church was the Leffe museum in the Benedictine sisters abbey. The beer that was created there is still made and sold worldwide. Close to our meeting point was the City Hall which was rebuilt on the site of the Bishop of Liège’s 18th century residence. Next to it was St. Martin’s Gate, the only remnant of the 1637 city wall.

Adolphe Sax introduced his saxophone at the Paris Fair in 1846, he had received the patent on March 12, 1846. There is a museum dedicated to Sax close to the church. He was born in Dinant in 1814 and died in Paris in 1894.

An older Collégiale Notre Dame was destroyed in 1227 by the collapse of the cliff. The church was restored in the 19th century and again from 1919 to 1924 as a result of the German destruction in 1914.

It was another 90 minute drive to Luxembourg City, in the tiny Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. The last Belgian region that we passed through is also called Lūxembourg. The clouds in the sky were getting more numerous and greyer as we approached the border. There were wind turbines in Luxembourg fields as well.

The Luxembourg City fortress has been constructed by French and Spanish occupiers over the centuries, just like in the Caribbean where Dutch, Spanish, English and French pirates and navies fought for control of the islands. The first Grand Duke was a King of the Netherlands. When the line had no more male heirs, a cousin of the royal house, Adolphe was appointed Grand Duke. There were European wars with Prussia, France, Spain which controlled the Netherlands at one time. Luxembourg was invaded many times and finally in 1867 France and Germany decided the Luxembourg should be neutral. It became independent in 1890. But in 1914 and 1940 it was invaded by Germany. The fortress which had been built by French and Spanish forces over the centuries overlooks a deep river valley.

There was a 90 minute walking tour beginning by crossing a bridge built in 1903 and was the largest single arch bridge in Europe. We could see the fortress walls way below the bridge amongst trees. The temperature was 19°C, but there were some grey clouds gathering. We were led to the Constitution Place and reminded to meet there at 4:45 p.m. to walk back to the coast together. Constitution Place is located where the ancient Beck bastion of the fortress used to be. The monument is a memorial to the people who died in the First World War and was erected in 1923. Next we went to where the Jesuits had their monastery. Part of their buildings is now a library. We were also standing by the addition to the Cathédral Notre Dame built in the late 1930s to more the double the size of the old Jesuit church finished in 1621. Inside you can see the two different styles. The stained glass in lovely. It had different names, first St. Nicolas church then St. Peter’s under French rule.

The colours of the Duchy flag are red, white and blue, but not the same colour of blue as the Netherlands flag. We continued to Willem II Square. He was a ruler that made good changes to Luxembourg, however his son wanted to sell the Duchy to France, which did not happen. After England and the Netherlands won the Battle of Waterloo, defeating the French, Netherlands in the north became a republic, but later became a constitutional monarchy. We saw the 16th century palace where the governors of Luxembourg lived. They were from Austria. Next door was the Chamber of Representatives, the Luxembourg parliament. The 13th century St. Michael’s church, which was consecrated in 987, was bombed by the French army of Louis XIV and rebuilt with funds from him in 1697 and 1698. Luxembourg was the initial capital of the European Union, but most of the offices were moved to Brussels, but finance and the courts still remain in Luxembourg. Down in the valley below the old walls was St. Elizabeth church, which later became a hospital then a prison from 1863 to 1866 and now an event venue. From 1815 to 1866 Luxembourg was part of the Confederation of German states. There was a meeting in London and on May 11, 1867 Luxembourg was declared a neutral country, which was fine with France and Germany. Then most of the fort was demolished between 1867 and 1893.

When the walking tour ended we went back and took some pictures then decided that since it was close to 3 p.m. we should find a place for lunch. We chose La Boucherie Restaurant and had a very good meal. We were expecting to return to Brussels until around 8 p.m. Just as we finished our meal there was a 15 minute cloud burst that ended as suddenly as it began. We found a souvenir shop to browse on the way back to the meeting point. Larry took more pictures of the City Hall, Chamber of Députés (Chamber of Representatives), lanterns on Rue du St. Esprit and the Spuerkeess as the group returned to the bus. The temperature was 21°C and the clouds were thinning.

Angelica, our driver, was confident that with no traffic problems we would be back to the Brussels train station by 8 p.m. after a less than three hour ride. Well, shortly after the first traffic light while still in Luxembourg City, the traffic slowed to a crawl. It was bumper to bumper past the border into Belgium for more than one hour only travelling 30 kilometres. At one point in one minute we travelled 100 meters. There was a major construction project. But we encountered six more en route. We finally arrived at 8:41 p.m. about 50 minutes later than expected. The sun had not set yet. We found an Australian ice cream store and enjoyed a cup of ice cream as we walked back to our hotel.

Total steps 17,976