Saive - Banneau Chapelle - Spa - Stavelot

There is another difference that is obvious as we move south. The houses are all made of brown or grey stone. Old farm houses with barns and out buildings all made of stone. And another thing is the number of horses and riding schools. Just down the street (rue) we stayed on in Saive there was a ring with jumps and we watched the activity there every night on our way to dinner. And on Sunday there were carriages of all sorts parading around town pulled by every kind of horse from shetland ponies to huge Belgians.

And we see more hikers every day. Today when stopping qt the bakery for Quisch for lunch we met a Dutch couple. We met up with them again this evening at dinner. They are on a two week trip through Belgium an Luxembourg.

Banneau Chapelle is a pilgramage site like Lourds, only the little girl who saw the Virgin in 1933 did not become a nun, so there was controversy. But the initial controversy is not keeping away the people today. We watched a line of people mostly in wheel chairs going to drink the water from the spring. And our hotel was full of German tourists visiting religious sites.

Spa is filled with nice buildings from when it was a center for the titled and rich of Europe take the baths. This place a short train ride from Maastricht or four days walk is a place we would revisit some day.

We are getting into hills, real hills as we walked from Spa to Stavelot. We had two short climbs of 300 m today through the Ardennes Forest. The trail took us through a Forestry and Water Center(imagine, they know the connection!), with museums, work shops, class rooms, an arboritum, and many walking trails. My friends at CDF have been trying to get funding for such a place forever. The Ardennes is a text book example of good forestry practise. We walked for 17 km through them today with no villages.