Proverbial route - Demer city canal

As the landlord is, he trusts his guests

This ditch was the city moat in the Middle Ages. The moat ran along the city wall, to the castle (stop 8) and emptied into the Meuse River. Later, the city wall that stood here was torn down and the fortifications were made. You'll learn more about that in the next stops.

The ladder of the inn
When the wall disappeared, the city was able to grow larger and the Demer city moat came within the city. But before then, this inn was the first thing you saw when you entered Heusden! People passing through often wanted to spend the night on the outskirts of a town. That was possible here, in the attic of this house. You could only get up there via a ladder.

Since it sometimes happened that guests left without paying, the innkeeper came up with a clever solution: he removed the ladder in the evening so that no one could leave before paying. A proverb was coined for such situations: as the innkeeper is worthy, he trusts his guests. This proverb means that your judgment of someone depends mainly on how you yourself are. Can you not be trusted? Then you are more likely to think that others cannot be trusted either.

Fact from Sjors
People used the water from the Demer River not only for defense, but also as a sewer and for washing. Gee, we can't imagine that now, can we?

Continue route
Cross the small bridge and go straight ahead into the Sterrestraat. At the end, turn right and soon you can turn left into Pompstraat (named after the water pump). At the end of that street, take the dirt road up the rampart.