Hi everyone! I’ve started a petition asking Flibco to create a direct bus between Leuven and Charleroi Airport 🚌✈️

Getting to Charleroi from Leuven is currently unnecessarily complicated, especially with luggage, and with so many students and internationals living here I think a direct connection would be really useful.

If you’d use this route too, please sign! The more signatures we get, the better we can show Flibco that there’s real demand 🫶🏻🫶🏻

🔗 https://c.org/kwnmzmzgR5

First time climbing the balcony of townhall for the flowercarpet. Definitely worth it, would like to try the tower view experience next time.

Two weeks, dozens of entries, and a winner. There were Antwerp balls, climbing and creepily hanging statues, monument to a frog in a very unexpected place, even more peeing statues (of course, no surprise there), and much much more of a fun content.

But there could only be one 🗿 Weird Belgium Legend

Congratulations to u/noxhalo, who submitted a statue in Wervik of two deer, uh, mid-courtship. On the main square and fully committed to the concept.

And the kicker from the entry itself:

"This statue of a couple of deer doing the deed in Wervik. I'm related to the guy who made it, too :)"

Which is either the strongest possible endorsement or a family Christmas dinner conversation waiting to happen. Either way, worthy winner!

Prize: the shiny new 🗿 Weird Belgium Legend flair, now officially assigned, wear it proudly.

Wervik itself is quietly one of Belgium's oldest towns and its tobacco museum is quite interesting

Thanks to everyone who played along! This is exactly the kind of thing that makes moderating this sub fun. Belgium is a wonderful country with its own hidden gems and it turns out we've barely scratched the surface.

You can find more entries and weird monuments in the original post.

Honestly, Leuven wasn't even on our itinerary, but we were totally amazed by it. Such an underrated gem!

Two big events land on the same weekend this year: the Grand-Place disappears under half a million flowers for the first time since 2024, and Outremeuse throws the loudest party in Wallonia. Saturday is also a public holiday, so read the heads-up first.

⚠️ Heads-up

Saturday 15 August is a public holiday (Assumption). Most shops and supermarkets will be shut. Tourist-zone shops in Bruges, central Brussels and at the coast usually stay open, but don't count on your usual supermarket.

Public transport runs a Sunday timetable on Saturday. SNCB, De Lijn, STIB and TEC all switch to holiday service on 15 August,so fewer trains and buses than a normal Saturday. Check your route before you leave.

⭐ Weekend highlight: the Flower Carpet, Brussels

Tapis de Fleurs / Bloementapijt (Grand-Place, 13–16 August): it only happens every two years, and this is the 24th edition. A 70 × 24 metre carpet built from more than 500,000 dahlias, this year designed around Hokusai's Great Wave off Kanagawa to mark 160 years of Belgian–Japanese relations, with Japanese artist Hiro Sugiyama and his Tokyo collective Enlightenment involved in the design.

New this year: a second carpet at the Bourse, themed on hops as a nod to Belgian brewing.

- Free to walk around from the square itself.

- Sound and light show every evening, 21:00–23:00, every half hour.

- Town Hall balcony (the proper panoramic view) is ticketed, you can book online, though same-day tickets are also sold at the Town Hall entrance. Balcony hours Sat and Sun 10:00–22:00, last entry 21:30.

🏛️ Brussels

Festival Théâtres Nomades (Bois de la Cambre, 13–16 August, Sat & Sun from 13:30): 19th edition of this free street-arts festival: circus, puppets, street theatre and marquee shows in a temporary "nomad village". Outdoor shows are free to walk into, a few marquee shows need booking. Volunteers pass the hat afterwards.

Brussels Dance Festival (De Brouckère, Bourse, Town Hall, Place de la Monnaie, 14–23 August): free daily 15:00–22:00, with performances, battles, workshops and DJ sets across the city centre. After-parties on Friday and Saturday until 2:00.

Royal Palace (Sunday 16 August is the final day): first summer opening since 2022, and the season ends a month earlier than usual because of a state visit. €10 adults, free under 13, timed slots online only, no tickets at the door. Closed Mondays, 10:30–17:00, last entry 16:00.

🦁 Flanders

Ambachtelijk Weekend (across the Waasland and Zeeuws-Vlaanderen, Sat 12:00–18:00, Sun 10:00–18:00): hundreds of makers open their workshops: lacemakers, clog makers, blacksmiths, cheesemakers, distillers, beekeepers. Free, with signposted cycling routes linking the ateliers. This year's theme is "Go with the Flow".

Paulusfeesten (Sint-Petrus & Paulusplein, Ostend, 11–17 August): 53rd edition of one of the country's oldest free city festivals, running all weekend. Street theatre, decorated squares and multiple stages.

Heuvellandse Wijnfeesten (De Warande park, Kemmel, Saturday 15 August): the Heuvelland winegrowers pour their wines in one place, alongside regional food stalls. Entry is free, tasting requires buying the festival glass. Check the Toerisme Heuvelland events page for this year's glass price and times.

🐓 Wallonia

Fêtes du 15 août en Outremeuse (Liège, 14–16 August, free): Friday opens with the tir de campes on Place Delcour and the Royal Bouquet d'Outre-Meuse, which turns 250 this year. Saturday is the heart of it — the procession of the Black Virgin, mass in Walloon at Saint-Nicolas, the blessing of couples, and the folkloric parade of the Giants of Outremeuse from 14:30. Sunday at 17:00 brings the Enterrement de Matî l'Ohê: a mock funeral for a bone, complete with wailing mourners, ending with the bone being burned. Full programme at tchantches.be.

Régate Internationale de Baignoires (Dinant, Saturday 15 August, free): 44th edition of the bathtub regatta: homemade craft, human power only, 1 km down the Meuse, watched by tens of thousands from both banks. This year's theme is "icône.s de la m(e)usique". A brocante and funfair run in town all day.

Marche Saint-Roch (Ham-sur-Heure, Sunday 16 August, free): one of the UNESCO-listed Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse marches, in its 388th year. Napoleonic uniforms, fifes and drums, and a procession that leaves at 12:00, bivouacs at the Trois-Arbres chapel at 14:00, and returns to the château courtyard at 17:15. Torchlit retreat from 22:00. There's a Saturday prologue too: the statue of Saint Roch is carried from its chapel to the parish church at 17:30.

Also on Saturday: the Beau Vélo de RAVeL stops in Bièvre (Rue de la Chapelle 8). Village opens 09:30, peloton leaves at 13:10, free 10 km loop open 10:00–16:00. Free, registration recommended.

🌿 Nature tip

If the Brussels crowds get to you, the Sonian Forest starts where the Bois de la Cambre ends and is several degrees cooler than the city centre. It's a 4,400-hectare beech forest, with 270 hectares UNESCO-listed since 2017 as part of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests inscription — the "Cathedral Beech" section is the one to aim for. Tram 8 drops you at the Bois de la Cambre. Free, open always, and you can pair it with Théâtres Nomades in the same afternoon.

Our city transport guide has the STIB fare details if you're new to Brussels trams.

🍹This weekends photo guessing is different: guess what's in these cups.

Six little cups, six colours. Two clues: you'd be drinking these in Liège, and 15 August is the day you're most likely to be handed a tray of them.

Share more activities and interesting events below, that's always welcome!

Belgium got roughly 90% coverage at around 20:13 tonight. That's the biggest partial eclipse here since 1999, and according to VRT the next one of this size will not be there until 2081. Hence the question:where were you and what did you actually see?

Half of Belgium seemed to have a plan. The coast, the terrils in Limburg, the Maagdentoren in Scherpenheuvel, the Werchter festival field, the terrace of the Triumphal Arch in Brussels. People just watching in fields, on the terraces, on driveways. Organising multiple eclipse parties and meetups.

My own contribution is not exactly astrophotography. I never got a decent shot of the sun itself, but the tree next to the house did a much better job than my camera did: every gap between the leaves worked as a pinhole and projected dozens of tiny crescent suns onto the wall and the garage door. A little planetarium for the ones who got no glasses.

Now it's your turn to attach the picture and share your eclipse experience. You can also include where in Belgium did you watch from and whether the view was good.

And if you're still awake: the Perseids peak tonight, so you can make a wish on a falling star. No equipment needed, just somewhere dark and away from city lights.

Photos very welcome. Crescents on a garage door fully count.

I visited Brussels after Ghent and after all the Brussels slander on this app , I expected to find it very boring and unsafe but it was quite the opposite. I really enjoyed my time in Brussels, maybe even more than I did in Ghent !