July 31: Day 2, Breda to Genk
Today's route went through the villages Baarle-Nassau and Baarle-Hertog. This ia one village, within the Netherlands, 2km from the Belgian border: but the ground it's on is largely a Belgian enclave with a patchwork of Dutch parts. Which means depending where you are, you are subject to the laws of one or the other country. Since they belong to different countries that means two police forces. Since they belong to two different municipalities there are two mayors, and even two different fire departments. Two Catholic churches, which seems unneeded...
The country to which your house belongs was decided by which country the front door was in. So there's cases where people with houses on the border who would redefine their back door as their front door, if the laws or taxes were more advantageous in the other country. In 1995 a 15-year project to measure the exact locations of the borders finished; it moved the borders only slightly but an 84-year-old woman's front door changed country. She didn't want to deal with the problems with emigrating, and the municipalities could not make an exception. Happily, she was able to swap her front door with the window beside it, and stay a Belgian resident.
There's a long history of smuggling, which normally takes effort, but here it might just mean moving goods next door without declaring it.
Things were far more significant during WW1. Belgium had been invaded and occupied by Germany. The Belgian postal service still ran, and would send mail there because it was a part of Belgium. So it was used as a way to route mail to the Belgian soldiers at the Yser Front in West Flanders.
A 40m radio tower was constructed there by the Belgian underground: Zendstation MN7. The Germans obviously knew about it, and were furious about its continued existance: but the Netherlands was neutral so sending troops over their land to destroy it would be regarded as an invasion, which might well cause the Dutch to join the allies. So it continued sending coded messages and jamming German communications throughout the war.
Sadly it's long gone now. There was a replica but it's gone too.
Despite all this drama, there's no visible signs that the village is fractured. Behind the scenes, it's hard work for the mayors and town councils, who have to find ways of fairly paying the costs for pipes carrying sewage and water beneath Belgian streets to Dutch houses. But at first glance, it looks just like any other small town.
From left to right: the border runs through the front door of this house so it is both Belgian (where it is house number 2) and Dutch (19). Where Zendstation MN7 used to be. Swing at the border. One of the many border markings on the bike path. Canalside route. Rail trail.
The route out was on a rail trail, and I can report these are still great. Trees were growing together above the path making it shady and cool, which was very useful given today's temperatures of 25-30C. The section after that was beside a canal, which was tree-lined and quite shaded.
The next stop today was "Cycling in the treetops", which is a cycle track that circles 10m up to treetop height, and then back down. It's in the middle of a forest, miles from anywhere, with small understated signs pointing the way, and I was quite surprised to find it was quite busy. I rode the loop and it was tricky to find moments when other people wouldn't be in the photos. Fun to be up high, but the photos don't really do it justice.
After that is "Cycling underwater" which was some distance away. The photos explain it much quicker than words! Interestingly the water waves on either side were quite different.
From left to right: the loop of Cycling Among the Trees. Cycling Underwater path. A bridge I especially liked. At the sundial park.
I'm staying in Genk tonight, a Belgian city I've never heard of before. It came up when looking for accommodation, and offered a well-reviewed cheap place to stay so here I am. It's now late evening and the temperature has finally dropped enough for the outside to be colder than inside, so I've opened the balcony door and I'm sitting underneath the green neon HOTEL sign. Outside there's loud shouting in several languages, which do not include English or French or Dutch. Down the street a crowd is singing along to Sweet Caroline and they're much louder than the recording whenever it's the chorus. The next song is Rammstein and they go quiet.
Friday night in Genk. Worth the visit.
