Intro
A hike to the abbey of Westmalle ... admit it, it sounds good ! If you're living in Flanders, you'll know why. If you're not, it might help to know that Westmalle is one of the worldfamous trappist beer brands.
Travel information
At 9 am we caught a bus in the center of Antwerpen, and 45 minutes later we were at our destination. Get off the bus at the stop Wuustwezel-Dorp. Walk up to the church of the village and there you'll find the signs of the GR 5 trail.
Right in front of the abbey of Westmalle there's a bus stop. Every 30 minutes bus 410 goes to Antwerpen.
The hike
The nice thing about GR hiking is that no two hikes ever are the same. Our previous hike from Kalmthout to Wuustwezel was quite boring. This one immediately guided us into a nice lane, leading to the Uilenbos (the Owls Forest). Pleasant paths take us through the forest and suddenly we're looking at a long-stretched pond on the edge of the nature reserve Groot Schietveld (the Big Shooting Range).
As the name implies, the Groot Schietveld is a military domain covering 1700 hectares. For obvious safety reasons the domain is not accessible. That's also why it is one of the best kept original landscapes in Flanders. Take a look at the map and you'll notice that inside the domain heathlands and fens still prevail. Outside of the domain these landscapes have completely disappeared.
(click the picture for more images on Picasa)
The trail takes us along the edges of the nature reserve. The landscape is worthwhile. On the one side you're looking at the forested edge of the reserve area, on the other side there's the meadows and the farmlands. Except for the hamlet Heieind which groups a few farms, the landscape looks completely pristine.
Passed this wonderful part of the trail we arrive at the E19 highway and the HST railway which runs parallel to the highway. We're looking upon an impressive concrete wall dividing the region. Behind it we notice the church tower of Brecht. The noice of the traffic can be heard over one kilometer from the highway.
Having crossed the highway and the railway complex we enter the village of Brecht. The trail designers have managed to find some surprising hiking paths to get us to the central square. This is a traffic-low zone, so it's a good place for a coffee break on a terrace. We're looking at the old townhall and a statue of Gabriël Mudaeus (a 16th century humanist / jurist we never heard of), at the late-gothic Sint-Michiel church and the Museum of the Kempen region.
Up to now the weather was sunny, but when we get up to continue the hike a few raindrops start falling. The sky will remain clouded, but the rain soon stops and won't bother us anymore.
We're now heading towards the Schotenvaart (the canal Turnhout – Schoten). Suddenly our trail is blocked. A removable electrically wired fence has been placed over the path. On the other side grazing cows. One way or another we have to get to the canal. The only other possibility is to follow the traffic road.
(remark 12/1/2009: later on we were told that a few meters before reaching the fence the GR trail turns left; there seems to be a path there, but at the time it was almost unrecognisable, completely hidden by scrubs and weeds).
Anyway, we reached the canal at bridge 10. No fancy names here, the bridges are simply numbered. For 2 kilometers we walk along the canal and reaching bridge 11 we cross. It strikes us how narrow the Schotenvaart is. The waterway dates from 1875 and was part of a network of canals that had to connect the rivers Schelde and Meuse. The industrial revolution soon made the old network obsolete. The transport capacity was way too low for the rapidly increasing industrial activities. In 1927 it was decided to replace the whole network with a single waterway, the Albert Canal. Today the Schotenvaart is mainly used for pleasure cruising.
When the trail leaves the canal it enters a protected landscape which - just like the Groot Schietveld - used to be heathland. Now it's farmland but here and there small fens have survived. In the distance we see a small church tower. It belongs to the Nazareth abbey, the only place in Flanders where a congregation of Trappistines sisters resides. Is it a coincidence that their male colleagues live only 6 kilometers further?
The last part of the hike leads us through a forest to the abbey of Westmalle. We pass by a place called Drieboomkesberg (Three trees mountain). Any bump in this flat landscape is called a mountain ... in fact it's only a few meters high. Since 1750 it's a modest pilgrimage site. A soldier was heavily wounded in a battle. He managed to recover and grateful as he was, he had a little chapel built at this place.
The forest ends at the wall of the Trappist Abbey of Westmalle. This is where the famous trappist beer Westmalle is brewn. It is one of the 7 beer brands that are allowed to carry the name trappist beer. The rules are strict: the beer must be brewed by or under the supervision of a religious abbey congregation, it must be brewed within the walls of the abbey, and most of the profit must be spent on social and charity projects.
The abbey (and the brewery) are not accessible to the public. GR 5 goes round the abbey and brings us to the N12 road Antwerpen – Turnhout.
Don't worry, across the road there's the inevitable tavern where the beer can be tasted. Of course, it's a commercial enterprise and the beer doesn't come cheap here. Westmalle beer is the most common available trappist beer brand, you can buy it almost anywhere in Belgium. Personally we prefer the blond tripple version.
There is a bus stop right in front of the abbey and the tavern. We would have thought that the bus must be quite popular here. After all, few people leave the tavern with an alcohol level allowing them to drive a car ... but we were wrong. We were the only passengers waiting for the bus.
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