Dinant, Belgium – BabyPenguin

There’s a shocking amount of traffic passing through Dinant, but it’s otherwise a sleepy town of less than fifteen thousand residents. Whether due to it being a weekday in the off-season, or because of COVID, many local shops were closed. The main attractions are one of the best photo opportunities on the Meuse (Maas in Dutch; the same river that flows past Maastricht), a hilltop citadel, the Notre Dame de Dinant, and it being the birthplace of Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone.

The citadel tour was full of historical narrative. The most memorable part was that German soldiers came into the town at the start of WWI and leveled almost everything, killing many civilians, including seniors and small children. After the war, Dinant was completely rebuilt to be just as it was before the Germans arrived. The citadel also underwent several transitions between military use and tourism. During WWII, it was damaged by American bombardment, but it didn’t take long for restoration efforts to ensue. The work has clearly been extensive, leaving behind a town that looks a lot older than it is and attractions that are in remarkably good condition.

Given the location, it was a worthwhile stop coming from Luxembourg by train on the way to Rotterdam (north of Antwerp, off the edge of this map).

Arrival

A Luxembourgish quiche was a good companion for the train ride.

The citadel is immediately visible when stepping out of the train station.

This photo sums up Dinant tourism: sax, church, citadel, river

Down the street toward the apart-hotel for the night

Laundry is difficult on the road, and springing 100 EUR for a place with a washer was a rare splurge. It was so much more space than expected, the entire top floor in fact. All of this and no detergent, meaning a 2-liter bottle of the stuff from the local market became a new travel companion in the pack.

View from the window on the opposite side

This is about three times the amount of space in some EU hotel showers.

Citadel

“Couque de Dinant” – Ingredients: flour, honey. It was as mediocre as that sounds, but it’s a local thing that every tourist needs to get suckered into trying. Maybe the honey was a good boost for the next part.

“Maybe those people on the cable-car had the right idea…”

“This was worth it. No one comes back to this part unless they went up the steps.”

View off the little bridge from the last photo

Finally inside, but… “For crying out loud, more steps?”

Almost every archway houses another cannon.

The boar may have been going a bit far for the kitchen display.

It’s hard to see here, but they made the baker look unhappy to be starting an early morning.

In person, walking into this room had the effect of wondering whether a live actor was posing at the desk.

This isn’t an artsy, tilted photo. There was a sign a bit earlier about entering a half-collapsed area that had been hit by a mortar. It’s not clear if this is a real war remnant or a simulation. All of these tilted photos were taken level to the horizon. It’s *really* tough to walk through this part of the citadel.

This video is the best way to understand the whole scene they’ve set up:

A place of this size doesn’t emerge overnight. They include multiple elevations to understand various plans and stages of construction.

A cell from the portion used as a military prison in the 1800’s

This place was all about defense. There are holes all over the walls of various shapes and sizes that could be used as lookout points and archer/gunman posts.

This is out front for everyone coming in via the cable-car.

This commemorates the mass cremation that occurred after the WWI invasion of the town.

The whole front section was a ghost-town.

If the cafe were open, guests (also absent) could enjoy this view over a meal.

Taking the stairs down seemed like a terrible idea, however much fun they were on the way up. The view from the cable car was wonderful too.

Notre Dame de Dinant

Grotte de Dinant La Merveilleuse

There’s a limestone cave on the opposite bank that served as a backup-plan when a journey to see a castle south of the town turned out to be infeasible. With poor lighting, so many rough edges, and no object to gauge relative size, the regular pictures do a terrible job of showing depth. The best way to experience it is looking at this photo sphere, taken in the most impressive gallery. After clicking on the link, click on the picture, then on the circular arrow icon in the center to get an image that can be dragged around (or viewed by moving a smartphone/tablet).

Up Next

With a quick stop between the cave and the train station for belongings, it was north to Rotterdam for a second look at the Netherlands.