Tienen is a city about a half hour from Hasselt. A week of so ago, Ross suggested we visit since it has a lot of history and some beautiful architecture. Boy, was that ever a bad idea. I'll explain later.
Tienen is most famous for its sugar refinery. Raffinerie Tirlemontoise/Tiense Suikerraffenaderiaj was established in 1836. Production was limited to 10 sacks of raw sugar per day.
Belgium is not one of the world's biggest sugar beet growers, but I sure see a lot of them growing here. In fact, France, Germany, the U.S. and Russia are. Sugar cane and sugar beets produce basically the same kind of sugar. I read that it only takes 12 sugar beets to make one pound of sugar. Not bad.
There's even a sugar museum where you can find out everything you ever wanted to know about sugar. Those are really, really huge sugar cubes.
This is the old begijnhof (convent) which stands beside the Paterskerk.
Paterskerk - built in the 13th century.
Sadly this church burned in 1976.
Not being able to restore it to its former glory, the area is now a park.
So besides it being freezing cold, the whole city was taken over by this carnival. We drove 'round and 'round looking for a place to park. That is a Hummer - perhaps the first one I've seen in 2 years. Anyway, the churches were closed due to Carnavale.
I think we may try again when it's warm, the churches are open, it isn't a holiday, and the carnival has left town because I really like sugar.
No comments:
Post a Comment