Belgium Trip
April 22-May 1, 2005
 

When I was offered this trip, I jumped on it because it was a garden tour and also because I am putting a tour together that will include gardens in Holland and Belgium in 2006.

Liliane Opsomer, Press and Public Relations with Belgium Tourist Office went above and beyond in showing us the beauty in Belgium and I hope you enjoy both my thoughts and the pictures that are shown. Remember that this is not a tour, but a familiarization trip that takes in many hotels and sights.
Our tours do not have more than one or two hotels.

April 22/23 Brugge, Lies Vandenberghe Private Garden

We set off from Chicago and arrived into Brussels in the morning and after getting our bags headed to the train station to go to Brugge for our check in at the Hotel Heritage www.hotel-heritage.com A four star property, Hotel Heritage has 20 individually decorated rooms and 4 superb suites.

After checking in we had a bit of free time so I wandered out around the hotel to see what was in the area. I picked up some Belgium Chocolates at the famous Dumon - you can see the little shop tucked into the rest of the buildings. I also took some pictures of the surrounding buildings and square. We then set off to visit the private garden of Lies Vandenberghe.

Her place starts with the beautiful green barn doors. Her garden is a '38 room' beauty filled with roses and decidedly boasting a French flavour to it. She has more than 960 varieties that peak for a special open garden the last three weeks of June when it is open to the public. "Without my roses there would be no garden". They are all grouped into themes such as royal, musical and romantic by their names. She ended up our visit with home made deserts and coffee and tea.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped a couple of times where I took a picture of a windmill and a favourite shot of an elderly nun on her way to services ... then off to dinner at Restaurant Patrick de Vos www.patrickdevos.be