Are you ready for some real Belgium – Euro trip? Then grab your bags and whoosh! a great adventure awaits you. Houffalize is a Walloon municipality of Belgium in the province of Luxembourg. Here you will be lost in the incredible landscape of Houffalize. You can have an adventurous ride in Barrage de Nisramont and of course kayaking can’t be left. You will be lost in aromatic views of Parc Naturel des Deux Ourthes and you will wish to stay here forever. So head on, Belgium foresees you with an exciting trip to Houffalize.
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Address to reach the town :Houffalize
Parc Naturel des Deux Ourthes
Houffalize is encircled by an immense protected space, covering 76,000 hectares on the deep slopes of the Ourthe Valley.
The Parc Naturel des Deux Ourthes includes both the western and eastern arms of the Ourthe, which unite near Houffalize at the Nisramont dam. There’s something almost Nordic about the countryside, with its frigid winters, coniferous forest and a mist that hovers over the valleys. It’s a great and tough hiking trail. Out on a hike, you’ll cross lovely lush forests all around, peat swamps, sunny grasslands spotted with dairy cows, aromatic woodland and you will sometimes come face-to-face with enormous schist formations. If you choose to leave the normal trail and go for the more adventurous version this trail is for you.
Barrage de Nisramont
An impressive place not only for the dam itself but also for the beauty of the site in its absoluteness. For visitors, the Barrage de Nisramont is a place to wallow in the Ardennes countryside. There’s a 14-kilometre path weaving through the intense woodland on the banks of the reservoir. Superb place for walking, trekking routes long as shorts. If you are a fan of walking, you can take the 14-kilometre promenade, a circuit that goes completely around this 47-hectare lake. On the other hand, all around the dam, all over the circuit in summer, where people hang out in kayaks or stand-up paddle boats at the dam and the place is set up with barbecue grills and picnic tables. Fishing is permitted as is kayaking and canoeing. Very subtly lit at night, it then plunges you into an almost magical world.
Houtopia
Houtopia is a recreational and educational centre dedicated to the discovery of the 5 senses. Just the ticket if you’re in town with smaller members of the clan, Houtopia is a multisensory indoor and outdoor attraction.
The interior space completely transformed in spring 2018 is made up of a host of activities, experiences and sensory manipulations. Outside, the adventure playground is like nothing you’ve seen.
There’s a safe, netted bridge crossing the Ourthe to the rocky right bank, leading to a 30-metre enclosed slide returning across the gorge. This is a fantastic centre to spend time with your children. Please make sure that you come here whenever you are in town. A space of discovery and wonder, Houtopia is an ideal place to visit with family, school or in a group, rain or shine.
Église Sainte Catherine d’Alexandrie
Houffalize’s Early Gothic church started in the 1230s as the chapel for an Augustinian priory. It is in the primary Gothic style and includes a baroque altar at the end of the 17th century. The building suffered during the bombing in January 1945, but some extraordinary fixtures came through unscathed.
The building houses a magnificent Two recumbent figures are particularly interesting: the funerary slab in high relief of Thierry I of Houffalize and the funerary monument of Thierry II, carved in a blackish limestone rock representing him lying on a bluestone plinth covered with his chain mail and adorned with his coat of arms. It’s an extraordinary place to visit.
Escapardenne Eisleck Trail
There’s an esteemed hiking trail more than 100 kilometres long, between Kautenbach in Luxembourg and La Roche-en-Ardenne in Belgium. Here you find gossamer mists, peaceful dairy pastures, the fleeting appearance of a deer, a freshly mown meadow filling the air with a pleasant fragrance. This route is signposted in both directions and it ceased to function into five stages. Travelling northwest towards La Roche-en-Ardenne, Houffalize is at the end of the third stage, which puts you in a great position to try a couple of day hikes. Heading southeast on the way to Asselborn you’ll be walking on the towpath of that unfinished canal. Going northwest towards Nardin the vistas are spectacular, as you traverse a narrow ridge between the valleys of the eastern and western arms of the Ourthe.
Brasserie d’Achouffe
Even by Belgium’s outstanding standards, the brewery ten minutes out of Houffalize makes some top-class beer. Brasserie d’Achouffe began as a hobby between two brothers-in-law and now produces 300,000 hectolitres a year and exports to more than 70 countries. An awesome little brewery with a great story. You will be taking a tour in Dutch and English. The signature beer is La Chouffe, an unfiltered lager with fruity and spicy (coriander) hints. Also in the range is a dark beer, a hoppy lager, a spicy winter beer, a citrusy summer beer and a fruit beer introduced in 2017, infused with cherries. You can learn the brewery’s secrets on a 90-minute multilingual guided tour, setting off at 14:00 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Sundays. So drink the beer, enjoy the tour and stroll outside the brewery for a bit.
pictures from :Internet
