Namur trip

Best panorama so far

The city is beautiful, it has some kind of a middle-enlightenment aged feel with it's crowded narrow streets, and of course the amazing churches decorated with marble and carved-wood sculptures. My best guess for the feeling is somewhere among the middle-aged, the south-european and the modern lifestyle.
By the way the a inner city doesn't have many sights, there are some museum, in which the student usually not much interested, and neither us. On the other hand (as in all cities, I've been till in Belgium) the buildings are awesome and the churches are really beautiful. I just love these catholic decorations with a lots of marble, handmade carved-wood sculptures about the saints and the weird naked babies, and of course, my favourite, the lead glass windows with the saints and biblic stories, them I really miss from Hungary. I'm not sure, these beauties how could survive so many occupations and war, but probably the Belgians assimilated to most of the situations as they always do. If in Belgium, do as the Belgians.

You have to get across the river to get to the fortess, meanwhile check the lot of beautiful sites along the riverside, and the lot of bridges (as there is two rivers in Namur, we realized). If you plan to climb the hill (what in this flat country seems like a mountain), be prepared for a lot of stairs, parks, endless ways to the forest and a huge amount of walking upstairs. So prepare with drinks, food, and a lot of time to rest on the panoramic sides of the walls. But don't expect too much from the fortess, it's just a lot of high walls and serpentins, but there's no central building, or something else, leastways we didn't find it. (Don't forget to make selfies, if you can, maybe upper you won't find any place for this purpose, as there are a lot of woods hiding the sight everywhere) Food is especially useful for students, as you get really hungry, if you reach the top, and yeah, there are restaurants, but not with student prices. (Based on Thanasis's observation  - Cezar salade for 14€)
Still on the top there is a free parfumerie, who sells the homemade parfums for ~30€, and some of them smells pretty good (e.g. strawberry). There is also a Roman-aged theater, it seems good for a photo, but don't expect much more. And btw, if we are talking about restaurants, there is this little beauty, what is called Chateau de Namur, it should be the final destination with all of it's rose gardens, tower, and this kind of girly stuffs. This is in my opinion the greatest building in the city, or at least the most beautiful. When you're finished with the resting, selfies and sightseeing, you can leave the hill now and find something to drink or eat in the city center. 

Almost all of the pier is walking street as most of the city center, so you can walk along the river and watch the other sides nice mansions. For the lunch I could offer some hamburger, pizza, baguette or waffles, as there is no Greek restaurant in the city. If you choose the burger, try the Ot's, good burgers (normal-giga-mega, btw not as big, as shown, but 2-3-4 meat in one burger and a lot of fries) for average prices (menu ~7€)  In summary I recommend the city to every Erasmus student in Louvain, as it is like 7€ and half an hour trip from the University, and it's just 5-6 hours to explore the whole downtown. After or better meanwhile the discovery of course, you have to take 1-2 hours for a baguette, a coffee, a beer and for the panorama, so just enjoy the day like the natives would. Yeah, one more thing, if you found a suvenir shop, please take me a fridge magnet. :) Well yes, last, but not least, does anyone know, what is the hipe on the snails?

The beer speciality of the city is the Blanche de Namur, it's a wheat beer, and you know, I just love wheat beer, so maybe partial in this question, but it was my best beer so far in Belgium. (And the best wheat beer, but it was also the first one. :) ) Much gas, icecold, not to powerful, than a mild flavour of the typical wheat beer, and it's also not strong: 4,5%, so I can recommend it also to women. Try it!


City rating: 7/10
Beauty: 2/3 - average (compared to the Belgian cities)
Sights: 1/3 - half day program
Speciality: 2/2 - own beer, parfume
Spirit: 2/2

Blanche de Namur rating: 9/10 - best beer till now.

Budget: 7€ train ticket, 7€ food, 2,6€ beer, free map