The best of Belgium: not monk-brewed beer and chocolate, but beachfront trams and bicycle trails
- Flat, friendly and offering easy access to its European neighbours, the low-lying country has much to see
- From supersized flea markets to a near-continuous beach, go beyond the big cities
What does Europe’s solar plexus feel like first thing on a Sunday morning? The best way to find out is to drop by the town of Tongeren, smack on the border of the two halves of Belgium – French-speaking Wallonia and Dutch-speaking Flanders.
Germany, Luxembourg, France and the Netherlands are all an hour’s drive away or less, and it seems as if they and every other member of the European Union have dispatched an emissary here, to what is possibly the greatest outdoor bazaar on the continent.
If it’s a flea market, as some call it, then these are super-sized, pedigree, world-class fleas. Once a week for the past four decades, fossicking among the antiques and curios – furniture old and less so, vintage bottles, oil paintings, gilded mirrors, medals from a dozen different conflicts, books and stacks of comics (after all, Tintin’s one of a tightknit posse of famous Belgians), mildewed brassware and so on spread over seven entire streets – has become prime recreation for up to 10,000 bargain hunters, whether they’re actually haggling or just watching others go through the motions.
“About 300 stallholders set up in summer, slightly less in other seasons – people come here as much for the fun of it as serious shopping,” says Natascha Verjans, who could well be described as the market’s ringmaster.
“Besides the stalls, there are dozens of regular antiques shops, all at the very heart of the European continent, which adds to the diversity of the stuff that’s up for sale.”
