In the course of a long weekend in Flanders, I visited 6 béguinages in 5 cities - the one in Lier (quite nice, but nothing special), Ter Hoyen in Gent (large green space, rather idyllic, also known as the Small Béguinage), Sint Amandsberg in Gent (also known as Grand Béguinage, large area with a huge church), Ten Wijngaerde in Bruges (very pretty location next to a canal with many swans, today a Benedictine convent), the Grand Béguinage in Leuven (the nicest one of them, brick architecture on a large area, really a city within a city, today used for students of the local university), and the one in Mechelen (nothing special, the least impressive of them all). It is fun to walk through the pretty Flemish towns on the search for yet another béguinage, and once found, there is (almost) always a nice green space in the middle to relax for a while. They deserve their place on the WH list for their historic and architectural value, and for the insight into the unique life of the béguines, these "not-quite" nuns who temporarily chose to live in these secluded areas. There is also a very nice, and very similar, béguinage in the centre of Amsterdam - a possible extension?