Han-Sur-Lesse is really little more than a collection of houses and shops. There are only two streets, and one "T's" into the other on at the center of town. Weyers Cave would be a thriving metropolis compared to this tiny town--- even smaller than Spring Hill or Mt. Solon! Here are Debbie and DJ sauntering down the main street. You can walk from one end of the town to the other in about three minutes.
About a five-minute walk from the center of the little tiny town you can find one of the most beautiful caverns I've been in. And I've been in Luray, Grand Caverns, Kentucky-Down-Under, and Mammoth Cave. This set of caves is fuller and more densely packed with interesting and gorgeous formations (stalagmites, stalactites, curtains, plates, layers, domes, beehives, etc.) than any I've ever seen. They won't let you take any pictures inside (even without a flash!), but suffice it to say that I was impressed. Debbie's back is bothering her, but she withstood the 456 steps of stairs just fine -- she says it's because they were spread throughout the 2-hour cavern tour.
We bought the combi-passes, which includes the 3-hour train ride from Antwerp to Brussels to the Jemelle station, the 30-minute bus ride from the Jemelle station through the southern Belgian countryside to Han-Sur-Lesse, a short 1 kilometer narrow-gauge train ride from the center of town to the cavern entrance, a 2-hour guided cavern tour, a shuttle back to town, a 90-minute Safari ride to the other side of the mountain, entrance to the geological museum, plus admittance to the 3D interactive movie program, along with the return trips, all included, for less than the cost of one adult admission to an American theme park like King's Dominion or Six Flags!
The countryside in this part of Belgium is hilly and beautiful.
Here is where the River Lesse comes out of the mountain, near the exit of the cavern tour.
We did the caverns tour in the morning. In the afternoon, we took the tram ride from the town around to the other side of the mountain, where it entered a huge 1000+ acre game preserve, and our tram ride turned into a safari. It's like a huge open zoo.
The French name for owl is "hibou", and the Dutch name is "uihui", although the guide pronounced the names as "hoo-boo" and "oo-hoo".
The brown bears were in an enclosure, and enjoyed posing for the tourists.
"No, no, really, darling, I just finished my nails..."
We got to practice our French more on this trip than any we've taken since Paris and Strasbourg 2 years ago. Je parle un tres peu Francais, mais Debbie parle Francais tres bonne.
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