Day Trip - Dinant

Matt and I had the idea to visit Dinant - a small town in southeast Brussels, located on the outskirts of the Ardennes mountains - so we woke up this morning and headed to the train station at around 11:00am. We took the train to Dinant, took about an hour and a half.

The train ride was sweet. It was my first time heading in this direction and it was real pretty. We first passed through some woods, which I haven't seen since I have been here. Then came the pastures and rolling green hills with horses and lambds roaming about. There were windmills all over the place, and at one point we saw about fourteen parachuters in the sky doing god knows what. It was a pretty cool sight. Once we approached the city of Namur (the biggest city in southeast Belgium), we began to see the Meuse river - the same river that splits Dinant in half. The views were starting to get prettier and prettier, and a little more down the track and we came to Dinant. We had to wait for our friend Chase who took a later train then us, so Matt and I sat down and had a bite to eat at a small restaurant. I had some chicken wings and frites - it really hit the spot. When Chase got into town we walked across the bridge into the main city area. The views were absolutley insane. Dinant is a small town that lies next to a fairly large river. The city is looked over by a huge fort at the top of a pretty jagged cliff. Underneath the fort is the famous citadel with a crazy onion-shaped top. We wanted to go to the fort, so we took a crazy old cable car up. When we got to the top (about 1 minute later) we had an incredible view over the town. It was a little bit hazy out so my pictures weren't as great as I hoped, but they are still pretty sweet. We took a guided tour of the inside of the fortress, and it was really cool. We got to see where they would shoot guns from and the dungeons etc. After our tour we took some more pictures and then went to this playground that was also at the top of the cliff and messed around for a little bit on the jungle gym. I felt like a ten year old. About two hours after we first made it to the top of the cliff we decided to head back down to the town. We decided to take the stairs this time, all 500 of them. It was a good idea at first until my legs felt like they were goin' to fall off. When we reached the bottom we were hungry again so we found a cool little restaurant to eat at with tables outside along the river. I had a nice meal consisting of an omelette with ham from the Ardennes (so damn good), and a nice cold trappist beer. Not a bad cap to a good day. For dessert we went across the street and got waffles with icecream and hot fudge. I think I don't have to eat for a while now.

Chase took off and me and Matt stayed for another hour and walked around the city for a bit. Aside from the church and the fortress, there isn't much to Dinant. But I had a great time taking pictures because the city was so damn sweet looking. The train ride home was nice and relaxing and I zoned out to some music for the majority of it. I noticed a lot of motorcyclists in this city - everywhere you turned people were out on their bikes. I'm not sure if it was just because the weather was nice, or if there is a large population of bikers in this town. I also saw alot of roadbikers, and it finally began to show that Belgium actually does have a large population of roadbikers - something that I always here about. In Brussels it isn't so "biker friendly" so I never see too many. Matt and I decided that we are going to make another trip back down to the Ardennes when it gets a little warmer out to do some kayaking or hiking. It is a really cool place!

One week till spring break! I have to start preparing myself for a crazy trip. Hopefully I will update again by then. Make sure to check out my pictures from Dinant!