In Hasselt (a photo gallery)

August 18, 2021

I’m not sure what we expected, but Hasselt came as a surprise to us. Maybe I imagined something more like Sant-Truiden but larger, but it’s nothing like that. It’s actually quite modern, sophisticated, even hip. The core of the city center is pedestrianized, there are bike paths everywhere of course, and a generous assortment of attractive restaurants and bars. It looks like quite a nice place to live. The town is short on monumental attractions, but there is the wall art if that sort of thing appeals to you. It does for us and is reason enough for the visit - it’s the best town for wall art we’ve visited since our staying Tucson or maybe in Diamanté on the Calabrian coast.

I loved this elaborate building. Now unused I believe, it was the former provincial government building until it was replaced by more modern facilities.

Now this is exciting. The new duck store just had its grand opening. I’ve never seen an entire store dedicated to selling little duckies before. Interesting business model.

Hasselt is only about a half mile from the Albert Canal, with this short side channel giving it a small harbor.

The view across the harbor from our dinner table at Trentanove, a sleek, stylish, modern Italian restaurant.

It’s an Italian restaurant, so it’s no surprise that it’s almost empty when we arrive at 5:30. As we wait for our meal we enjoy a collection of traditional Italian standards: Elvis, Natalie Cole, The Stones, The Beach Boys.

A nice plan for the evening: bring your takeout and a six pack and flop on the pavement by the canal.

And the wall art - it looks like it all went up last summer during the Street Art Festival. I see from the catalog that we missed a few. Maybe we’ll look around again when we leave town tomorrow.

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Suzanne GibsonI'm glad you discovered Hasslet for us. We just breezed through and didn't appreciate what it has to offer. More a place to stay overnight. We, too, found the surroundings of Antwerp a bit monotonous, and the area where you are now is what made us Flanders enthusiasts. We discovered many small places like Sint Truiden. A bientôt, mes amis!
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2 years ago

Scott AndersonTo Suzanne GibsonWe did enjoy our stay in Hasselt, but you’re right about the region. One more on the long list of places I’d like to return to some day.
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2 years ago