Belgium Winter 2019 – The Pre-Brexit Tour

Highlights From This Trip

• 3 Days
• 10 Locations Explored
• 1000 miles driven
• Cute abandoned houses and farms
• Colourful cars, and a “crashed” plane in the woods

Welcome to my travel blog of my Belgium Winter 2019 road trip. After being cooped up on an oil rig for a few weeks, a quick getaway to Belgium was irresistible. Initially, there was no plan or a specific target. We booked our ferry and had only a few days to plan our trip. In fact, most of the locations came to use via research and conversations after we had left home!

I think that this may be one of the most spontaneous trips to date. In spite of this, we managed to visit some great locations as we travelled all over Belgium.

After on night at home, I departed for Latvia and Lithuania for another 6 days of exploring abandoned places.

Cute abandoned houses in Belgium

I have always been a lover of the abundant abandoned houses and farms of Belgium. Moreover, every year a plethora of new finds appear. scattered through my Instagram and Facebook feeds. The houses are always unique, rich in hints and documents which enable you to piece together a picture of the owners.

One of our first locations of the trip was Ferme Boeddha, or Buddha Farm. This is because of the numerous buddah statues in the house. This small house had a photogenic bedroom and living room. This house has been abandoned for around 7 years. Secondly, we visited Ferme Strawberry which is named after the strawberry-patterned tablecloth in the kitchen.

My favourite house on this trip was Ferme aux Draupaux. There is an interesting room which has a vintage blue baby carriage, artful (and certainly intentionally!) positioned in a decaying room. Altogether, the crumbling plaster and natural light in this room provided a beautiful backdrop to the baby carriage.

Rusty industry, dusty offices

One location which was shared with us in the nick-of-time was an abandoned coking plant (Blue Tower / Coke en Stock, or more recently called Coke and Stock). When we received coordinates for this we were only a few kilometres away, as luck would have it.

On a different day, we visited the abandoned administration offices (Ordre, Propreté, Sécurité) of a once-powerful steel company. The entry did result in ripped trousers. Regrettably, this is not a rare occurrence for someone as clumsy as myself. This huge building offered a wonderful evening to explore. The long corridors were lined with peeling paint and darkened doorways. The old open-plan offices were covered in a thick layer of dust. As a result of a leaking roof, the upper floors has some nice natural decay and some minor vegetation ingress.

Colourful vintage cars (and a “crashed” aeroplane in the woods)

My favourite location of the trip was the Napoleon Beatle; a red VW Beatle in an old garage. The walls and ceiling on one side of the room were green with ferns. Likewise, ferns have also sprouted in scattered patches around the car. This contrast of red and green appeals to my love of bright colours.

Subsequently, our polychromatic vehicle adventures were set to continue. We also visited a 1960s-1980s Barkas B 1000 minivan, which was a pleasing powder blue. Another highlight of the tour was a cobalt blue 1920s/1930s Citroen C4. Both of these vehicles were safely tucked away in buildings, protected from the elements.

I am a big believer that sometimes anticipation adds to the fun of an explore. We walked through the woods, and arrived at the coordinates of a lost plane (Mayday, Mayday). However, upon arriving at our destination there was no plane. After what seemed like a long search, we finally discovered the plane resting a few tens of meters away from the original coordinates. This plane looks as if it has crashed, but appearances are deceiving. This plane was placed here during the filming of some movie or tv program and has simply been left here.