As you will find out, not very much!
Situated in North-Eastern Belgium, the small city of Genk is home to the reigning Jupiler League side, and will be entertaining Liverpool in the Champions League this season.
On the banks of the Albert Canal, Genk is a city of 66,000 inhabitants and interestingly most of these are from foreign backgrounds. In such a small sized city, the culture aspect is huge. The Belgian census read that this Flemish city has more than 80 different nations represented within their limits.
Liverpool travel to Belgium on the back of a narrow home victory against Red Bull Salzburg last time out, so what can fans do as a tourist in this multicultural city.
A disused coalmine has now been turned into a museum, a restaurant, a movie theatre, a cultural centre and office spaces. There is also a School of Arts and a ‘Fablab’ where you can learn techniques such as 3D printing.
Just outside of the city region, there is a National Park known as Hoge Kempen, the first of these parks in the Flanders portion of Belgium. Opened in 2006, it attracts 700,000 visitors each year to view some natural beauties, like the Demer River basin. In 2012, it was announced that the National Park was listed as a World Heritage Site. The main image to this article is from the National Park.
A local art gallery known as the Emile van Doren museum would be next on the list. This will explain the history of the landscape artists who have been to the city, and why certain painters used Genk as their base for some of their work.
On a sporting aspect, KRC Genk are the current Belgian Champions, averaging around 20,000 fans at each home game. They have one notable player for their side this season, the son of Gheorghe Hagi, Ianis, has already scored three times this season.
Speaking to some Liverpool fans today, here is what they had to say about the game on Wednesday.
Photo credit: Ine Nationaal Park via Creative Commons Licence
