Bouillon: a hidden medieval secret of Belgium

What is the first thing that comes to your mind thinking about Belgium? Brussels, Brugge, Antwerp, Ghent? All charming cities with spectacular Grand Places and busy shopping streets. If all you have dreamt of is to have a city trip with museums, cute bookshops and lots of bars, you should probably stick to bigger cities. But maybe you love nature and you’re ready to see a Belgium you’ve never seen before? Then you should take a train and bus to the hilly Ardennes, to the charming city of Bouillon.

Arriving on foot

We didn’t use any transport to get to Boullion. Since it was the end of our Transardennes hike, we walked there. Yes, with walking sticks, sweaty T-shirts and shivering legs — hiking 30 kilometres per day isn’t a walk in the park. If Godfrey of Bouillon, the famous crusader who went to Jerusalem, would have returned alive from his adventures, this would’ve probably been the way he’d have entered.

We said goodbye to yellow fields with white cows and to shadowy forests. We tried to walk as quietly as possible in the last bit of forest, hoping to see wild animals. But we had no luck. Instead of a fox or wild boar, there was something white towering over the forest — a watchtower. What a welcoming sight. If you have walked ten hours with little reliable information of how long today’s hike is exactly, all you want is to see how far you are. At least the view would have an answer to this question.

Heavy traffic surrounded the tower — probably it scared all the wildlife away. We cursed the cars, discussing how lazy people must be to drive a car to a viewpoint.

A little bit of climbing and we were up. The wind in our hair, Bouillon in the valley looked like a town from fairytales. Or a holiday place. Either way, it was hard to believe that people actually lived in these white, flower-covered houses with cats everywhere. “It’s only downhill from here. You will like it,” said Tom. I agreed. I could run downhill if needed. And the town looked so close to us that it seemed like all I had to do was stretch out my arm and touch it.

Between heaven and hell

Those with mountain experience know the drill. It’s hard to get up there, and the views are breathtaking. Only when you start to go down, you notice how damn high you’ve come. And there is no easy way down, no helicopter waiting, no way to just to run down the mountain. It’s usually just a painfully slow zigzag.

Well, descending to Bouillon was good in a way that we never had to climb up. But it was definitely not a small hill as it looked from the tower. The whole thing reminded me more of reverse rock climbing. A meter-wide trail ran like a ribbon along the side of the mountain and somewhere down there, a tiny toy city awaited. I’m not a big fan of heights and narrow mountain roads, but there was no other way down. Well, maybe we could have called a taxi, but that wouldn’t have been a hike anymore, would it?

Focussing my eyes straight ahead, I hobbled forward. In my head ran a horror movie where I stumbled over the root of the tree, fell down and broke all my bones. That was the moment when I saw bicycle tracks in sandy soil. I didn’t want to think how the hell that was even possible. After what felt like forever, we arrived back on solid ground.

To enter the town we crossed a medieval bridge that was part of the city wall. Next to us, there was an awesome fort. Not a bad welcome. And again I started to think about the times when all the travellers had to descend the hill to reach the city. You never know, maybe there was an old lady who had to do it every week to sell eggs and milk on the market?

The adventure continued

We were happily down, but our adventures were not finished yet. Even though we had hiked almost 30 kilometres, we had to walk some more. Tom was writing an article about the Transardennes hike, so the organisers had paid for food and accommodation along the way. So we never had to lug our bags around. Which was awesome up until now. But now the organisation had dropped our luggage in a guesthouse on top of a hill. Since we didn’t intend to sleep there, and booked a cheaper hostel instead, we had to run up the hill to take our bags, then back down, and up to another hill, where our hostel was. What made everything especially interesting was the fact that we had to do it quite quickly, or else the hostel receptionist would have left.

To be more efficient – or maybe because I was deadly tired? – Tom left me on an idyllic bridge in the town centre and ran up alone. I sat down and enjoyed the reflection of city lights on the river water. The golden hour had arrived, and the whole town looked truly beautiful. People took pictures of the river, themselves and their cars. I saw a mum and her son posing one by one in front of their boring-looking black car.

The number of tourists in this town surprised me. During our seven day hike through fields and forests, we had hardly seen a soul. All of a sudden we found where everyone was hiding — in Bouillon. There were a lot of local tourists, families with slightly bored teenagers, young and middle-aged couples doing their pre or after dinner strolls and youth groups skateboarding down the many hills of the town.

Slowly the daylight started to dim, and it was getting dark when Tom returned from his bag-fetching walk. Finally, only one hill separated us from the bed. Well, to be completely honest with you, we did walk back down the same evening to eat kebab. We didn’t have a choice. There were no shops or restaurants up on that hill.

The medieval beauty of Bouillon

So what else is there to do in Bouillon, besides eating kebab? Quite a lot actually. Firstly, we took a walk along the grassy riverside, where people relaxed, slept and drank champagne. Yes, it’s completely normal in Belgium to bring a bottle and glasses to the grass and have a bubbly drink with friends even before noon.

The other option is to go kayaking. Whenever a yellow bus brought a new batch of tourists, the river filled up with boats. Excited children, confused girls and their sleeping boyfriends who let the girls do all the work.

You cannot escape the medieval vibes in this city. Every bridge and gate leads you straight into the Robin Hood movie. So if you’re in love with history, it’s probably a good idea to visit the fort. You can also do it in the evening with torches. It was pretty cool to see people up there walking on the fort walls in complete darkness.

If you don’t want to do any sightseeing, it’s enough to stroll around the cute streets, listen to the church bells and count the cats. The nice thing is that in the middle of the day the tourists are out doing their activities, leaving us the opportunity to observe the locals. Or did the locals observe us instead? A local couple had brought their chairs in front of their house and just sat there drinking white wine, watching life go by.

Practical information about Bouillon

Where to sleep in Bouillon?

Bouillon has dozens of sleeping options. We stayed in Bouillon’s Youth Hostel, which offered great value for money.