A wonderful sunny autumn getaway. 🍂🌲🌞 The sandy ground around Averbode is ideal for the pine forest. If you hike here, you cross a very varied landscape with dunes, heaths and moors.💚

Beautiful wandering with a picturesque landscape in Averbode 😊🙃

Nice wandering Berlaar-Gestel-Kruiskenberg-Berlaar

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This Lourdes grotto in the garden of the Sint-Augustinus nursing home in Berlaar was built in 1912 and got decorated in 1915. Earlier it was also decorated with a church on the top of the grotto.

A Lourdes grotto is a replica of the original grotto at Lourdes, France or a grotto honouring "Our Lady of Lourdes" unassociated with the Lourdes site. St. Bernadette saw "Our Lady" (Mary, mother of Jesus) in this grotto in 1858. In place of the Marian apparition, a Madonna figure adorns the grotto. The original figure was created by Joseph-Hugues Fabisch in 1864 according to Bernadette's instructions.

Doel, in whose brick houses more than 1000 people used to live, is to disappear. It's empty in the streets. You can hear the metallic creaking of the jackdaws. Windows and doors are locked with plates. Plants overgrow the buildings. Few tourists walk the streets, just like us. We admire the beautiful murals, enjoy the calm atmosphere. All of this will soon be gone. The port of Antwerp needs space to grow.

The restaurant "De Molen" is located in an old windmill from the 17th century. In the background you can see the Doel nuclear power plant. It's one of two nuclear power plants in Belgium and the one with the most densely populated area in Europe. Around nine million people live within a radius of 75 kilometers. In my home country, Germany, the last nuclear power plant will be taken off the grid at the end of next year. After the disaster in Fukushima, a rapid nuclear phase-out was decided, which will be completed in 2022. Belgium is also in the process of phasing out nuclear power. Both nuclear reactors are to be taken off the grid by 2025.

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Wandering in the Kalmthout Heath.
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Mine towers in Connecterra

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The chapel was built in 1946 in memory of the killed members of the resistance of the Secret Army, an armed Belgian resistance group. The symbol of this resistance group is an inverted triangle with a lion's head. The secret army was mainly active from 1944 after the Allies landed in Normandy. In September 1944, several resistance fighters gathered in this forest to attack the Germans with the Allies. The German troops became aware of the preparations due to treachery and attacked the animal shelter in Rotem (code name: Anatol), in which more than 130 resistance fighters from the region were killed or captured.

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