Warm weather has been a bit elusive this year. Small weekend adventures around the country are helping keep spirits up while we wait for better weather, and May offered a chance to (finally) visit one of Belgium's better known cities: Liege (or Luik as the Nederlandstalige mensen would say).
Home of Standard, a beloved or bemoaned football club depending on your allegiances, of course, Liege in its glory days was a central artery for European industry. Today, industry- like the weather- evades her, as most manufacturing and production jobs have been relocated since the closing of Belgian coal mines in the late 1980s. Nonetheless, Liege is a city with its own proud traditions, including the long and impressive farmer's market (Le Batte), meatballs slathered in a fruit-syrup sauce, and seemingly masochistic alleys/stairways. The hour-long journey from Brussels is certainly a worthwhile jaunt, if only to see the Calatrava-designed train station. One word of advice: make sure to run the Montagne du Bueren before heading for the meatballs...
Le Montagne du Bueren
Order as ambition provides: one meatball, two or three?
