In a bid to take full advantage of my proximity to the European continent I’m headed to Liege this weekend to catch the LBL - live and in the flesh. I’ve got flights booked in and out of Charloi and have a hotel reserved in Liege - but when I started Googing around this past weekend for spectating hints read several comments that “Liege is kind of a hole”.
Naturally this is where I turn to the great ST braintrust. Where do you recommend that I stay/eat/drink/watch the race? Anything I shouldn’t miss outside of the race? Unfortunately I don’t have a tonne of time this trip (arrive Saturday, leave Monday) but am game to try to cram in whatever I can!
As a classic “dumb North American”, all I know about Belgium is cycling, beer, pomme-frites and the movie “In Bruges”…
Liege and many other cities in Wallonia have lots of crappy parts and a pretty bad infrastructure. It used to be an industrial/mining area, so the economy collapsed after coal was replaced for other fuels, and manufacturing stuff became cheaper elsewhere. The outskirts of most cities have lots of abandoned factories. The city centres are usually a bit better. It is also not the real pomme frites and beer area of Belgium. The pomme frites and beers in Flanders are better.
The surroundings of Liege are pretty nice, once you left the abandoned industrial areas behind you. Especially the areas east and south east of Liege are really nice for cycling/hiking/canoeing/rock climbing etc. That is around the towns of Stoumont, Spa, Remouchamps, Eupen and Malmedy. I have never been there for LBL but I have biked most hills of the course. Maybe you could rent a bike and watch the pack on one of the hills around Spa and then later on the day on the cote de la redoute and do a bit of sight seeing in between. Lots of nice roads to ride there. I think the party is best on the cote de la redoute. Whatever you do, take a good map with you and never be shy to ask a local about where to go because the logic behind the Belgian infrastructure is something no foreigner understands.
I studied abroad in Maastricht, The Netherlands in the spring of 2004. Liege was about a 30 minute train ride away. It’s kind of a hole for sure. Not really anything to do in the city besides change trains. Charloi (SP) is probably the crappiest airport I’ve ever been to as well. Never had a flight leave on-time, and had a few cancelled (Ryan Air flights).
Two days in Liege sounds like torture, but I’m sure you can find a bar to have a good time at. If you’re feeling risky, take the train to Maastricht for one of the nights. Amazing city and a fantastic night life. One of my favorite places in the world. Especially if you’re young and looking to have a good time.
Best place to watch the race will probably be the Cote de Saint Nicolas or La Redoute (La Redoute might be cool as the family of Phillipe Gilbert will be throwing a big party over there). Be there early!
Liege might not be the most beautifull city of Belgium but don’t worry, there is still some nice sight seeing to be had and on sunday there will be plenty of atmosphere.
Saturday or Monday I would recommend a day trip to Antwerp (take the train), very nice city, lot’s of stuf to see and do.
I did a bike race in September that was partly on the Liege-Baston-Liege course. We stayed in Spa and the race started in Stavelot. I would recommend staying in Spa - it is a beautiful little town with really great restaurants.
There are several great climbs, including the climb to the Eddie Merckx monument that climb right out of the town of Stavelot, so I think that might be the best place to watch the race. That climb was the toughest climb by far I have ever done on a bike (over 20% - much harder than the Beast at St. Croix). There is also a bike store in Stavelot owned by a former pro where you can maybe rent a bike which I would really, really recommend as the bike riding in the area is unreal. You need a rental car to get around as the mass transit is not great. Have fun - it is a great area.
I studied abroad in Maastricht, The Netherlands in the spring of 2004. Liege was about a 30 minute train ride away. It’s kind of a hole for sure. Not really anything to do in the city besides change trains. Charloi (SP) is probably the crappiest airport I’ve ever been to as well. Never had a flight leave on-time, and had a few cancelled (Ryan Air flights).
Two days in Liege sounds like torture, but I’m sure you can find a bar to have a good time at. If you’re feeling risky, take the train to Maastricht for one of the nights. Amazing city and a fantastic night life. One of my favorite places in the world. Especially if you’re young and looking to have a good time.
I would second this recommendation. I was in Maastricht for a conference for about 3-4 days, and although it was a small town we had a blast with a great night life. On a day off I took the train down to Liege, rented one of those city bikes at the train station, and had a great time riding up and down the hills of Liege, including part of the LBL route. Maybe that’s an option: staying somewhere else and taking the train in for the race.
Thanks everyone! Based on your feedback I’ve cancelled the hotel in Liege for one in Spa and have procured a car. Hope to get out a bit on Saturday but don’t want to spend the whole day driving - so given less than a full day I was thinking that we’d leave Charleroi by ~11:00, cruise up to Brugge for the day (with a possibe side trip to Dunkirk) and head to Spa hopefully not too late in the evening. Wake up and watch the race the following day, cruise around in the afternoon and then unfortunately head back to a hotel right be the airport Sunday night for an 06:50 flight back to Dublin on the Monday morning.
so given less than a full day I was thinking that we’d leave Charleroi by ~11:00, cruise up to Brugge for the day (with a possibe side trip to Dunkirk) and head to Spa hopefully not too late in the evening.
Comments? Things to not miss/not bother seeing?
Haha, when i gave you the advice on what is nice in the area i forgot that you north americans can see two european countries in one day
I only went to the Ardennes for doing outdoor stuff. It is one big wilderness if you grow up in the north western european flatlands but I think for a canadian it is not so special. Maastricht is nice also during the day, and there are some other nice villages in that very southern part of the Netherlands. Just on the other side of the border in Germany there are also some nice villages. Monschau is one very old town with a castle. It is usually a bit crowded with tourists so it is a bit of a museum, but it is very nice. There is lots of really old stuff still standing there and it is not far from Spa. In that area Monschau is probably the place to go to see original medieval stuff still standing.
