La Roche-en-Ardennes

We drove off to La Roche to visit a really cool castle, after we left the maze. We were going to go for a hike through the forest Ardennes as well, but it costs money for a trail map, so we decided to take it easy and just view the castle. The town itself is caters directly to the outdoor enthusiasts. There are so many biking and hiking trials, kayak tours down the rapids, that almost every one we saw was there just for that. The Ardenne forest runs through out Luxembourg, SE of Belgium and the NE part of France. The area is beautiful, surrounded by hills covered in trees. This is such a change of scenery as the parts of Belgium we have seen before have been so flat. The castle, Chateau Feodal, dates from the 11th century and is in a state of ruins. Despite its condition it was easy to access most of the building’s site. Every night except when it rains, which it did on both nights we spent in La Roche, they have a performance depicting the death of the Countess Berthe said to haunt the ruins. Julie and I were surprised by the costume the actor wears during the nightly performance, as it was straight out of a KKK manual of how to dress; this was mainly due to the white pointed hat and matching sheet ensemble. We would have enjoyed seeing the show nonetheless. They also have an archery activity set up in one of the smaller courtyards, but it costing €1/shot we passed on this. The highlight for Julie and a little bit for me too, was the bird show. This was held in the bar room due to the rain, they had about a dozen birds flying back and forth and talked about them in Dutch and French, so once again Julie translated for me. Due to the room size, the birds flew very close to us, enough to move the hair on my head. They were also letting people in the audience have a chance to handle the birds, I insisted to Julie to have a go, but if she couldn’t pet them, then she didn’t want to handle them either. In 1944 during the 2nd World War, 90% of La Roche was destroyed. This seems to be the case for most of the towns and cities we have visited in Belgium thus far and it’s remarkable that they have been able to rebuild and keep some of their history. We are off to Bastogne next, which is known for “The battle of the Bulge”.