A weekend in belgium.
I went to belgium with the gf for my birthday. Driving from kent via dover and trying to cover as much as possible in Belgium.
Roughly in date order and accompanied by a few photos so you dont get bored quickly.
Chateau Noisy
After an hour and half-ish drive through on off rain on awful beglian roads we were at the parking spot, conveniently in the middle of no where in a picturesque village. After a trek through the woods, including seeing the tracks of some sort of quad bike (as research mentioned a guy on a quad bike with a gun) we finally made it inside and it was a rather chilled explore.
Shortly after arriving we heard voices. Accidently scaring some French explorers who were rather oddly dressed for such an occasion, but friendly enough.
The Château is pretty trashed and the top floors are burnt out. In a way it kind of reminds me of Potters manor, trashed-wise. I imagine it was an amazing building back in working days, which research shows. The best vantage point was the Tower turret, where it seemed you could see for miles including another nearby chateau.
Charleroi Metro
Strange place this one. We visited after chateau noisy so it was getting on a bit, and our stomachs becoming ever hungry. We entered at what I think was an old planned entrance. There seems to be an active graffiti scene and the old tracks seem a perfect location.
We only checked out a small section due to tiredness and not being sure of the pikey-ish area. Lots of shouting and loose dogs about. Would have been nice to explore more stations...
Doel
Doel village has a strange atomsphere. Surprisingly there were other people there who it seemed were out to visit for the same reasons as us. It does feel slightly like a film set or an aftermath of somesort. It is quite a site to see a normal housing estate with a bellowing chimney behind it in person.
further research I have done back at home tells of a film called 'An angel in Doel' but I am struggling to find a version with English subtitles as its in Dutch.
De engel van Doel (2011) - IMDb
Antwerp Metro
Arriving at station around 8ish after exploring doel and having a easy day in Antwerp. We had a rough idea of access to the sleeping metro which was apparently down the tracks.
It was too early as there was a lot of people coming and going and the chance of being spotted very easy. We just nipped past from the platform and had a look around and gave up. I wish we had stayed longer and tried more but that's for next time.
ECVB
This was originally attempted on the day of arrival, but heavy rain and workers on the derelict looking track put us off. On our return on the journey home, we were succesfull and pretty much found a pre made path in.
The scale of the place was amazing and shocking how everything can just be left there as it is. Unfortuantly I had forgot to charge my camera battery so was having to fire lucky shots using the last scraps of juice my camera had.
Something ive started experimented in, is getting field recordings from abandoned places as sometimes these have similar impact as photos. ECVB is a great example with rusting metal, wind and squeaks echoing throughout the halls. Granted the recordings were only on my iphone, but I am planning to use them in some sort of music production.
Belgium is a haven for exploring, there are tons more places I wished I could have visited but there was not enough time. To me there was not much else to do there and everything shuts early, but for exploring Belgium is your empire.
(this was actually in Dunkirk)
I went to belgium with the gf for my birthday. Driving from kent via dover and trying to cover as much as possible in Belgium.
Roughly in date order and accompanied by a few photos so you dont get bored quickly.
Chateau Noisy
After an hour and half-ish drive through on off rain on awful beglian roads we were at the parking spot, conveniently in the middle of no where in a picturesque village. After a trek through the woods, including seeing the tracks of some sort of quad bike (as research mentioned a guy on a quad bike with a gun) we finally made it inside and it was a rather chilled explore.
Shortly after arriving we heard voices. Accidently scaring some French explorers who were rather oddly dressed for such an occasion, but friendly enough.
The Château is pretty trashed and the top floors are burnt out. In a way it kind of reminds me of Potters manor, trashed-wise. I imagine it was an amazing building back in working days, which research shows. The best vantage point was the Tower turret, where it seemed you could see for miles including another nearby chateau.
Charleroi Metro
Strange place this one. We visited after chateau noisy so it was getting on a bit, and our stomachs becoming ever hungry. We entered at what I think was an old planned entrance. There seems to be an active graffiti scene and the old tracks seem a perfect location.
We only checked out a small section due to tiredness and not being sure of the pikey-ish area. Lots of shouting and loose dogs about. Would have been nice to explore more stations...
Doel
Doel village has a strange atomsphere. Surprisingly there were other people there who it seemed were out to visit for the same reasons as us. It does feel slightly like a film set or an aftermath of somesort. It is quite a site to see a normal housing estate with a bellowing chimney behind it in person.
further research I have done back at home tells of a film called 'An angel in Doel' but I am struggling to find a version with English subtitles as its in Dutch.
De engel van Doel (2011) - IMDb
Antwerp Metro
Arriving at station around 8ish after exploring doel and having a easy day in Antwerp. We had a rough idea of access to the sleeping metro which was apparently down the tracks.
It was too early as there was a lot of people coming and going and the chance of being spotted very easy. We just nipped past from the platform and had a look around and gave up. I wish we had stayed longer and tried more but that's for next time.
ECVB
This was originally attempted on the day of arrival, but heavy rain and workers on the derelict looking track put us off. On our return on the journey home, we were succesfull and pretty much found a pre made path in.
The scale of the place was amazing and shocking how everything can just be left there as it is. Unfortuantly I had forgot to charge my camera battery so was having to fire lucky shots using the last scraps of juice my camera had.
Something ive started experimented in, is getting field recordings from abandoned places as sometimes these have similar impact as photos. ECVB is a great example with rusting metal, wind and squeaks echoing throughout the halls. Granted the recordings were only on my iphone, but I am planning to use them in some sort of music production.
Belgium is a haven for exploring, there are tons more places I wished I could have visited but there was not enough time. To me there was not much else to do there and everything shuts early, but for exploring Belgium is your empire.
(this was actually in Dunkirk)
