Intro:
After having explored the southern borders of our country for a while, it was to time for a change. We headed for the capital, far from the borders. Although ... we found plenty of borders here too!
It was a quite unique hike. Where in this little country can you hike for more than 20 km. only passing through a busy urban area and a vast forest? A hike we can recommend to anyone who loves (such as we) contrasts.
Back and forth:
The hike starts in the heart of Brussels, so we took a train from Antwerpen to Brussels-Central station. From there to the Saint-Michaels cathedral it's only a 5 minutes walk.
On the Chaussée de Louvain in Gaillemarde there's a bus stop for TEC line 558. During the holidays the service is limited. We had a bus at 17.18 h. going to Braîne-L'Alleud. The trip took 15 min. In Braîne-L'Alleud there's a train to Brussels - Antwerpen every hour.
The hike:
Almost 3 years ago we hiked through Brussels on the GR 12 trail (see the hikes Grimbergen - Brussel-Zuid and Brussel-Zuid - Dworp). At the time it struck us we could still learn lots of things about our capital. It was also then we met the GR 126 trail in the heart of Brussels. Later on we met that same trail in the middle of the Forêt de Soignies on the GR 512 trail (see the hike Huldenberg - Linkebeek). A strange, but also an interesting combination, because looking at the map, both places didn't seem too far from one another.
After our recent hikes along the french, luxembourg and german borders we didn't want to go too far from our home place. The Brussels' city/forest combination seemed ideal for that. You can't be more central and further away from borders then in the capital of Belgium, and it seemed like an original idea anyway. We had to start on a new GR trail, but that wasn't a problem either ... we can always take one more.
(click the picture for the full series on Picasa)
However, the idea that we wouldn't meet any borders along this hike was a big mistake. Indeed, there are no country borders near Brussels, but in little Belgium we do have quite a few other borders: the regions, the communities, the languages ... we passed most of them. The hike takes you from the Brussels' Capital Region to Flanders and then to Wallonia.
Politicians on all sides of these artificial borders have succeeded in turning this area into a hot issue (after all they have to do something). Can you imagine they're even considering installing a 'corridor' here to connect Wallonia to Brussels? Soon, we'll have United Nations peace troups controlling the area to maintain the fragile peace in and around the corridor. Border incidents will become daily news and the UN Security Counsel will regularly gather to discuss human rights violations in this explosive area. China and the USA will threaten to veto any international military interventions. Add to all this the green protests against the massive clear cutting of the Forêt de Soignies in the context of the war on terrorism ... hallucinating situations. In Germany they used to have a more or less comparable situation with Berlin and the east and the west. Finally the situation was solved by the population themselves who couldn't take it anymore, followed by the politicians uniting it all into one country. We're just making fun of the situation, but all in all it doesn't sound much more ridiculous then what our politicians are making of it.
Fortunately we didn't notice (yet) any of all that. We walked through the center of Brussels where the Mont des Arts and the Parc de Bruxelles are green spots that we - as inhabitants of Antwerpen - can only envy. We're heading in a southeastern direction, thus crossing the community of Ixelles where the Chaussée d'Ixelles surprises us with its dynamic artistic image. From the Place Eugène Flagey we hike along the Lakes of Ixelles before arriving at the Abbey of La Cambre. Even in the middle of the city, people don't need more than a few beachchairs to create their own little tropic paradise. From the abbey it's only a few steps to the Avenue Louise which leads us to the Bois de la Cambre. This long stretch of green wood was only known to us from the traffic information. When there's stormy weather the roads leading through the wood are closed because of the risk of falling branches and trees. Anyway, that's still better than cutting the entire wood for the sake of our holy cows.
Continuing along the trail we come to Boondaal (Boendael) and Watermaal-Bosvoorde (Watermael-Boitsfort). In this up-market community we're surprised to find lots of smaller houses (painted green and yellow) next to the manors and city palaces that have been built here over the years. It's a quiet place and it even looks cozy.
This is also the place where the GR 579 trail leaves our GR 126 trail. Both ran together since the start of this hike. Here GR 579 goes its own way to Liège.
We're now halfway our hike, so it's time to make the transition from the urban environment to the forest. The transition is represented by the Parc Tournay-Solvay. It's a bit of a strange combination of all kinds of plants, trees and green shapes. We even meet community gardens here. But it's green and from the park we immediately enter the vast Forêt de Soignies. We've left the city, this is a different world.
For quite some time we're following a small winding path along the valley of the Vuilbeek (a brook). After a few kilometers we're crossing the invisible border of the Brussels' region. We were here before when we hiked the GR 512 trail. From now on we're in Flanders but apart from the fact that the bilingual names (dutch and french) in Brussels have been replaced by only the dutch names, nothing changes. We're following the Lorreinendreef. It's a long straight dirt road that crosses the forest from north to south. Maybe a good idea for that 'corridor' ...
Arriving at the Puntgeveldreef the trail changes direction. A tunnel leads us under the highway and a bit further we enter the Walloon part of Belgium. Again an invisible border. And again nothing changes. That whole discussion only seems to exist in the heads of our politicians. Anyway, why should we care? We're here to enjoy our hike. The trail continues and after a while we're standing in front of a long brick wall.
The wall completely surrounds the estate of Argenteuil. The domain covers 136 ha. and was bought in 1929 by an American ambassador who built a castle on it. Later on the estate became the property of the national railway company who passed it on to the public domain. It's reputation is primarily linked to the fact that from 1960 on the former king Leopold III and his wife Liliane Baels lived here. When the latter deceased in 2002, the castle was all but ruined. After lots of discussions and political manouvering the whole estate was publicly sold in 2004. It's private property again, but meanwhile the castle would have been completely restored in all its splendor.
We leave the wall and walk through Gaillemarde, a hamlet that is part of La Hulpe. We definitely left the Forêt de Soignies and are offered the first open views on the Walloon landscapes. Our hike ends here.
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