Mechelen: The Ultimate Laid-back Citytrip

Chris Veldhuis
Jan 31, 2015
2 min read

Mechelen is a beautiful little city in Flanders. I can't exactly remember how my friends and I ended up there, but we did and stayed for a couple of days to enjoy all the good things this place has to offer: local Beers, coffee, famous Flemish fries with beefstew and Op Sinjoor cigars.

It was May, and Spring had just set in. We could spend all of our time outside, strolling through the city and relaxing on terraces, which is, in my opinion, the best way to enjoy a new city.

We had this USE-IT map, which was created by a young local. It is very nice to have a non-commercial citymap like this, with good and relevant highlights. You should absolutely check out the USE-IT website to see if your European destination is featured. Our map led us to all these obscure corners of the city and provided us with great recommendations for food and drinks. The best example? It led us to this shabby foodcart, near a busy road. It looks awful, but Frituur ZANDPOORTVEST has awesome fries and beef stew.

Naturally, we would spend all our remaining time tasting beer. Belgium has fantastic beers in general and Mechelen has a few local special beers to offer, like Gouden Carolus and Maneblusser. We couldn't go inside, but we took a photo of the brewery as proof.

I would say Mechelen is the perfect citytrip destination. I have this complicated relationship with cities. In famous ones like Paris or London, I always feel the need to see everything, running from one place to the other without really seeing things. Our visit to Mechelen was one of those rare, laid-back citytrips. Here, I never felt the need to visit the must-sees, because I didn't know them. Also, we didn't go for annoyingly long walks through the city center, because it is simply too small for that. It all came down to realxing, talking, drinking and eating in a lovely environment.