Hallerbos (Halle Forest in Dutch) is the “Blue Forest” of Belgium in the Halle village. It’s one of the secret spots in Belgium not widely known. I was traveling this time with Subha and Srinivas, both experienced solo travellers. Thus the three although traveling together for the first time, had a lot of experiences to hold interesting conversations.
Surprisingly I had never been to Belgium before even though I have been living in the 200km radius for 4+ years. The moment I arrived Brussels station for switching trains, there was this ecstasy within me of looking around the new architectures and language I don’t understand: It was Dutch. People here speak mostly Dutch and French. I knew about the language Flemish, but later found out it is more of a culture than a language. A dialect that is softer manifestation of Dutch!
We were lucky to check in one of the most pretty B&Bs I have stayed so far in Europe. From the very first moment that we had met our hosts Suzanne and Ives, we knew how lovely would it be. This morning when we arrived at the Halle station, Ives was there waiting to pick us up in his car. How often do you have such warmth from strangers! Ives told us all he knew about the forest and Halle during the 5km drive. On arriving at the B&B, we were welcomed by his wife, Suzanne.
Ives and Suzanne were an elderly Belgian couple who had the attic room for three of us. It was squeaky clean with the best possible homely decorations. We were already looking forward to an experience beyond just the forests.
If you are going to Hallerbos, there is a slim chance you would find an accommodation in the woods through one of the hotel booking websites. So feel free to choose something from this list of Hallerbos B&B. And if available, go ahead and book Suzanne & Ives’s place, I bet you wouldn’t regret it!
Hallerbos is famous for the beautiful purple carpet of bluebells which usually bloom around mid of April. This forest is covered with giant Sequoia trees. I haven’t been to a forest with taller trees before.
Now as you can already imagine from the photograph above, that I don’t have a single photograph of the amazing lilac carpet. Because we were of-course before time when the Spring would set in. But Im happy this weekend turned out to be a pretty amazing one because of two reasons: 1. Traveling along with solo travellers enriches the conversations, and 2. The pretty cottage we spent in the weekend with lovely hosts!\
Because I don’t have photographs of the Lilac bloom, treat your eyes with your imagination from these images.. how heavenly can it get during the season.