As I have mentioned before, some villages had to make way for the expansion of the harbor of Antwerp. As you can imagine, not everybody was willing to move. And the village that resisted – and still resists – the most, is Doel:
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Every Belgian knows about Doel. We all know and remember the images on television of people protesting against the harbor and the nuclear reactors. We have seen the slogans on the houses. We have seen pictures of sad and angry people in the newspapers.
Since the sixties the people from Doel have been struggling to continue to live there. And the battle isn’t over yet… It is unclear how many people still live there, but most of the houses have been abandoned and have been covered with graffiti. Doel has even become a kind of touristic destination. In the windmill at the embankment there is even a pub. So, after you have walked around and looked at the abandoned houses, you can have a drink and a snack.