Unknown urban trails in Belgium

Most visitors to Liège never discover the orchards and meadows above the city. Once planted with vines, this steeply sloping landscape still has old fruit trees, grazing sheep and a few goats. But it’s not too easy to find. You need to follow the marked trails around the citadel known as ‘les coteaux de la citadelle’. The easiest route to the top is the long flight of steps called Montagne de Bueren. But there is a more intriguing and less well-known route you can take. It begins in the Impasse des Ursulines, to the left of the Montagne. This leads to a beautiful cluster of old buildings in Maasland Renaissance style. Some belonged to a 17th-century Béguinage, while others were constructed in the 1960s. You now climb up the slopes following a series of narrow lanes and stone steps. Sometimes you come to a dead end and have to try a different route. But eventually you will reach a gate leading into a wood known as the Bois des Mineurs. Here you are high above the old town looking down on the rooftops and spires. Several other ways to reach the top are even harder to find. One route passes through the courtyard of an old town house behind the law courts at Rue du Palais 60. Another trail begins with a staircase built inside a modern house at Rue Pierreuse 38. You can find all five different trails marked on the Sentiers des Coteaux map available at the tourist office.