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I went to Spa without getting wet.

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I have now been working more than 3 years in the lovely city of Brussels and I have the last 18 months had the fortune of living here full time. One of the first things I have become to understand is why expats don't want to leave again. When I arrived I had a goal of walking the streets of Brussels and driving the roads of Belgium. One of my goals here is to visit all large cities in Belgium and afterwards know a lot about Belgium.

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I went to Spa without getting wet.

September 6, 2009

I had never been in the city of Spa so i decided that this should be the time, since I was driving in the region anyway. Spa is situated in a romantic valley amid hills which form part of the Ardennes chain, some 35 km southeast of Liège, and 45 km southwest of Aachen. Spa is a relative small city with a total population of approximately 10,000 persons. The city is known for water and the racing track.

As the famed site of healing hot springs, Spa has been frequented as a watering-place since as early as the 14th century. Though other sources of healing hot mineral springs have become famous throughout the world, it is the town of Spa which has become eponymous with any place having a natural water source that is believed to possess special health-giving properties, as a spa.

The town is today perhaps best known today as home to the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, which hosts the annual Formula One Belgian Grand Prix.

I have not been there while the F1, which probably is a mistake that can be fixed one day, I hope.

As a curiosa it is a fact that Agatha Christie's fictional detective Hercule Poirot was born in Spa.

The city was very nice but also very touristic, many of the shops were open on a Sunday and the streets were full of people. If you are going there on bike it could maybe be a good information that the road going south out of the city towards the little local airport is uphill for almost 6 km. many bike riders had their tongue hanging out while fighting this Wallonian hill.