Flanders Travel Guide
From Wikitravel
Flanders [1] is the Dutch-speaking northern part of Belgium. It is wedged between the North Sea and the Netherlands in the North and Wallonia and France in the South. This region has an immense historical and cultural wealth which is made visible through its buildings, its works of art and its festivals. Every turn of a corner will bring you something new.
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Regions
Cities
- Antwerp The second biggest city of Flanders. It boasts the biggest port.
- Bruges "Venice of the north". A very nice town with lots of canals. Very close to the sea.
- Brussels Technically it's not in Flanders, but it's in the Flemish community and surrounded by Flanders. And it houses the Flemish governmental buildings making it Flanders' capital.
- Ghent A more medieval city located approximatively in the center of Flanders
- Hasselt
- Ypres This city got very famous during the second world war. It still has many landmarks (see also Flanders Fields Country).
- Kortrijk A rather small provincial city in the south of West-Flanders, close to France.
- Lier A small often neglected provincial town in the province of Antwerp. Has a nice beguinage.
- Leuven An old town with a very old university. The city is also home to Stella Artois.
- Mechelen
- Oostende is relatively big coast city.
The historical Flanders is a bit bigger and contains cities that are now in France and in The Netherlands, like:
- Calais (FR)
- Dunkerque (FR), also known as Duinkerken in Flemish.
- Lille (FR), also known as Rijssel in Flemish.
- Sluis (NL), nice old town
Understand
Nowadays, Flanders is one of the three federal regions of Belgium (the other two being Wallonia and Brussels). This means that it has its own government, a parliament and separate laws. Oddly enough the capital of Flanders is Brussels, lying in another federal region. But Flanders has travelled a long historic road before arriving at its present situation.
Get in
By Plane
Flanders has 3 airports:
First of all the national airport of Zaventem (close to Brussels)
Then there are several smaller airports: Deurne (Antwerp) and Oostende (at the coast)
By Boat
There are several ports at the coast to enter by boat and on the Schelde you can find several small ports too.
From the English coast (Dover f.e.) there are regular ferries to different cities.
By Car
The E19 goes through Flanders, also the E40 crosses the region.
By Train
Big cities in neighbouring countries (Paris, Amsterdam, London ...) have connections to bigger cities in Flanders. From there you can change train and reach every city in Flanders.
Other means
By bicycle or on foot. As we are in the European Union there are no borders and you can enter. Several places have nature parks and allow you to walk in and out (often following old-smugglers routes).
Get around
By car
All roads (highways, main roads, ...) are free in Flanders. Some tunnels can ask for a fee to pass it (fe. Liefkenshoektunnel in Antwerp) Roads are pretty good and signalisation is pretty good too. Older cities can appear to be a maze of one-way streets. Often it is better to park your car in a parking and continue on foot. Towns are not big in general.
Public Transportations
The national train-company is called NMBS [2]. Trains will get you to most cities.
In cities you will find busses, trams and metro from De Lijn [3](The Line). The same ticket is valid for 90 minutes for one zone. You can buy multiple-ride tickets (Lijnkaart), this is cheaper than buying a ticket per ride. These tickets are valid in every Flemish city.
In Hasselt public transportation are free!
By Bike
Flanders has a vast net of special roads for bicycles. Get a map in a tourists office, because sometimes they can be hard to find. In general cycling can be very pleasant, though don't expect to find many places where you can repair your bike.
Talk
The official language of Flanders is Dutch, although English, French and German are widely understood. A typical Fleming will always try to speak the foreigner's language but he really appreciates a foreigner speaking some words of his native tongue Flemish, as the variety of Dutch spoken in Flanders is usually called, differs slightly from Dutch spoken in the Netherlands. There are typical words, phrases and expressions that are not used in the North, and the accent is quite distinct too. (One of the most obvious is the soft g-sound as opposed to the harsh sound heard in the Netherlands.) Although it is the same language, you might be surprised to see Dutch television programs subtitled in Flanders and vice versa. Generally the older generation speaks better French (a long time ago only French was used in administration and industry), and the younger generation better English (there is more contact with the English language through music, computers and internet).
See
Historical cities, like Gent, Leuven or Mechelen.
Do
Music Festivals
There are many music festivals organised throughout the summer. The bigger ones happen in a small village, because there is lots of space and not many neighbours to complain about the noise.
Some of the famous ones are:
- Pukkelpop (Near Hasselt) is still an independent festival organised by youth movements. They figure big names but try to have alternative groups too.
- Rock Werchter (Near Leuven), owned by Clearchannel features all big commercial bands.
- Maanrock (in Mechelen) is one of the larger free festivals. It's inside the city.
- Marktrock (in Leuven) has many different stages with different kinds of music all over the city. Most music is popular music, though there are many small bands playing there. The main stage is the only stage not to be free. Every time you enter you pay a small fee (5 euro in 2003).
- Sfinks (Near Antwerp) is a world music festival. It has a really nice atmosphere. There is a lot of side animation, like a big market.
- Pole-Pole
- Openluchttheater Rivierenhof (Near Antwerp) isn't really a festival, though it has big bands all through the summer. Usually they "pick up" artists that have a few days without a gig.
- Couleur Café
- Werchter Classic (Near Leuven) boasts classic rock bands, but has been featuring artists that had their break-through only recently. It's mostly a re-use of the Rock Werchter facilities.
- Graspop (Metal music), Rythm 'n Blues, Dranouter (Folk music), Cactus festival, Rock Ternat, Rock@Edegem ... (there are too many to sum up)
The festivals organised in towns are often free and very nice. They stay away from commercial music and have good bands playing combined with small local bands. Flanders has some nice music bands with some internation fame(dEUS, Das Pop, Zita Swoon, Soulwax,...)
Eat
Drink
Cafes
Every city, village or habited place has a cafe. You will find every style of café and if you have a problem this is the prime location to get help. Asking for a beer needs some of your attention as any café offers a broad range of beer kinds: blond pilsener, white beer, gueze, kriek, trappist/abbey style beers, amber colour. All beers are at reasonable prices from €1.3 to €3. Many cafes offer you even a wider range. Twenty and even more than 100 kinds of beer are no exception. Try them! They have all their own distinctive taste.
Stay safe
Flanders is very safe. You will find that people are usually very helpful. In towns, you should off course beware of usual things (pickpockets in tourist places, some towns have bad neighbourhoods, ...)
Get out
If you visit Flanders it would be very logical to also visit the Walloons. Though there is a different mentality, you will find that they are Belgians just like the Flemish (lots of beer and good food).
Paris is pretty close, so are London and Amsterdam. These destinations can be reached by train easily. The Waddeneilanden in The Netherlands are also not too far.
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