Our visit to the Caves of Han
by Arthur
Posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 11:00 pm CET
Last week on Wednesday 30 April we drove to France and stopped in Han-sur-Lesse in Belgium to visit the Caves of Han or Grottes de Han.
We arrived in Han at about 11:30 and quickly found a parking spot among dozens of other Dutch cars. 30 April is Queen’s Day in the Netherlands and an official holiday, so many Dutch people were out and about. We bought tickets (€10,75 per person) and boarded the 12:00 train that took us and at least 50 other tourists on a scenic 15-minute ride to the cave entrance.
We had a Dutch-speaking French guide that took our large group on a 90-minute tour through the caves. It was a nice 3-km walk through corridors and beautiful chambers lined with stalactites and -mites. The caves are the result of the underground erosion of a limestone hill by the river Lesse that forces its way under the hill over a distance of over one kilometer.
We saw the river Lesse several times on our underground walk and in the end we boarded a boat that took us on the river and out of the cave.
After the visit we had lunch of omelette and fries at Taverne du Centre:
It was a surprisingly fun visit to the cave. The large rooms were very impressive and the underground whitewater river was very cool to see. There was even a short sound-and-light show in one of the big chambers with benches for everyone to sit down. It was very entertaining.
There’s a few other things to do in Han including a ‘safari’ tour of a nature park where you can see (captive) bears and other animals. We didn’t do this, but here’s a picture of one of these buses:
After Han we drove on to France and visited the Vosges area. A report with pictures of this will follow soon.
Last week on Wednesday 30 April we drove to France and stopped in Han-sur-Lesse in Belgium to visit the Caves of Han or Grottes de Han.
We arrived in Han at about 11:30 and quickly found a parking spot among dozens of other Dutch cars. 30 April is Queen’s Day in the Netherlands and an official holiday, so many Dutch people were out and about. We bought tickets (€10,75 per person) and boarded the 12:00 train that took us and at least 50 other tourists on a scenic 15-minute ride to the cave entrance.
We had a Dutch-speaking French guide that took our large group on a 90-minute tour through the caves. It was a nice 3-km walk through corridors and beautiful chambers lined with stalactites and -mites. The caves are the result of the underground erosion of a limestone hill by the river Lesse that forces its way under the hill over a distance of over one kilometer.
We saw the river Lesse several times on our underground walk and in the end we boarded a boat that took us on the river and out of the cave.
After the visit we had lunch of omelette and fries at Taverne du Centre:
It was a surprisingly fun visit to the cave. The large rooms were very impressive and the underground whitewater river was very cool to see. There was even a short sound-and-light show in one of the big chambers with benches for everyone to sit down. It was very entertaining.
There’s a few other things to do in Han including a ‘safari’ tour of a nature park where you can see (captive) bears and other animals. We didn’t do this, but here’s a picture of one of these buses:
After Han we drove on to France and visited the Vosges area. A report with pictures of this will follow soon.