But there’s more to Belgium that’s just as interesting as Miss Belgium herself. 

Brugges, the Venice of Belgium

The Land 

I seriously thought that Belgium was a large European country, but as I checked my facts, it just has a land area of approximately 30,000 sq km, just a bit larger than the whole Philippine Central Luzon (Region 3) land area. So you could just imagine that you could traverse the country from one side to another in probably just around 3 to 4 hrs driving (or probably less as they have extensive network of highways). 

The plains of Waterloo

Belgium is also a land of the plains and rolling hills.  The Sound of Music filmed in Austria would have been just as good if it was filmed in Belgium with their picturesque countryside with grazing farm animals and slowly flowing rivers.  Belgium’s highest point is just at 694 meters (Signal de Botrange), just as high as Tagaytay, so they don’t have much picturesque mountains.

Slowly flowing river of Dinant, Belgium

The Language

Belgium is one of those countries that interestingly does not have a single widely spoken language.  There is no such thing as a Belgian National Language, but they do have 2 official languages which is French and Dutch (specifically its called Flemish, which is a Belgian Dutch).  All of the advertisements, signs and communications are all done in 2 versions, for French and Dutch. That’s twice the headache in understanding the signs and also twice the cost for Advertisers.  But the good side of this for Foreigners is that sometimes, words that are not that obvious in one language may provide a clue on the other language. When I saw the dutch word “duwt” on the door, I could not think of the most probable translation in English, but the french translation of the word which is “poussez” provided me with some context clues that it meant “push”.  Even corporate emails being sent by our client have 3 versions, in French, Dutch and English.

Floris Passion Fruit Beer, just one of the hundrers of beer in Belgium

The Food

Belgium boasts of their Belgian Beers (they literally have hundreds of different types of beer), Belgian Waffles, Belgian Mussels, Belgian Chocolates (chocolates are cheap in Belgium) and not to forget Belgian Frites (French Fries).  And did you know that Frech Fries (or Frites as what the Belgians call it) originally came from Belgium? The term French Fries actually refers to the way the potatoes were cooked.   There are many stories as to how the term “French Fries” was developed.  One story is that the American and British soldiers during WW1 saw the Belgian Army cooking some potatoes and because the Belgian army that they saw were mostly speaking French, thus the connotation that it was a french fried potatoes.

In Belgium, you’ll get your fill of Frites, almost all dishes are served with frites, even foreign dishes, such as the kebab, gets its unique Belgian signature of frites on the side.

Kebab that is distinguishly Belgian, with Frites on the side

The statue of "Manneken Pis" made entirely of Leonidas chocolates

The Weather

I was in Belgium in August, so it was still summer in that country but I always hear the phrase “In Belgium… it always rains” followed with a laugh from most of the local’s mouth.   I never really understood what they meant about it, I guessed it was a private joke for Belgians.  Whenever they mention that,  I always say to myself, “Well, hey, go to the Philippines! I’m sure you’ll be happy that in Belgium it does NOT always rain”.  But when October came, that’s when I realized that they were right, it does always rain in Belgium in October. It was the time of the year when the cold wind from the north would converge with warm winds from the south and bring sudden downpour of COLD BONE CHILLING RAIN!!!!!! Their weather at that time of the year was very unpredictable! In the morning you’d wake up to a bright sunny, blue sky and cloud-less day, only to come back in the afternoon drenched in cold rain, unprepared for the sudden change in weather.  

Sun worshippers at the beach of Oostende, Belgium

The historical Waterloo, Belgium on a hazy and cloudy weekend

The Transportation

This is something that I really loved about Belgium, their transportation system in the city is very integrated. Buy one ticket(12 jump ticket) and get on or off any form of public transport from bus, trams to trains with that one ticket.  They have extensive bus, tram and train routes that comes and goes on the dot!   Inter-region and inter-city train service are also not much of a hassle, most of the major train stations have tourist information, so roaming around Belgium is very easy. A train ride from Brussels, the country’s capital and literally its center, would only take around 2 to 3 hrs to reach the bordering countries of France, Germany, Luxembourg and Netherlands. So travelling to the country’s tourist areas is not really a big problem when you don’t have a car.

Velo, bikes for rent can be found near every train station

The grandeur of Antwerp's train station

The People

Well I could not really determine the characteristics of a Belgian national, probably because Belgium, or Brussels in particular, is the meltingpot of all European nations and I could not distinguish who are the real Belgians, or foreigner speaking French/Dutch.  But based only on the iteractions that I had with the employees of our client, I could say that Dutch speaking Belgians are much more outgoing and friendly than the French speaking Belgians. I feel that French speaking Belgians are a little bit snobbish, but probably this is due to the language barrier. There are many Dutch speaking Belgians that are conversant with English, while there are relatively lesser French speaking Belgians that also understand English. This was also evident for me during tours that usually segregate Dutch and French speaking tourists, the tour guide always assigns us to the Dutch group of tourist or Dutch speaking tour guide. Also when you watch local TV channels, the Dutch channels have more English TV shows than French TV channels. 

Brugges' old style windmill

A Filipino friend of my officemate who has been based in Belgium for some years now also told us that there is a cultural rift between Dutch speaking and French speaking Belgians. She said that if you speak French in restaurants in the north of Belgium, the Dutch speaking area, no waiter will attend to you, they will just ignore you. One of my Belgian colleague (French speaking) on one occassion when I asked him if he also knows Dutch, he just replied, “why would I want to know that? Dutch does not sound good, German language sounds better than Dutch, Dutch is very stiff” (well it’s not verbatim, but that was what he conveyed to us, and he was not joking, not sure if this is the same sentiment across the French speaking Belgians).’

The picturesque town of Dinant, Belgium on a lazy Sunday

The Weekends

The weekends are dull in Belgium.  Stores are only open until Saturday (most only up to 6pm) and on Sunday all of the establishments are closed.  We stayed in the city center, near the Grand Place, so there is a steady stream of tourists in our area, but when you move out of tourist areas, there is not much happening in Brussels. Things are very quiet during Sunday which is a very big change in my weekend lifestyle because I frequent the malls during weekends back home. 

Shopping district of Antwerp, Belgium on a sunny Saturday

Well there’s more about Belgium which I will detail in separate posts, generally Belgium is a place where you’d like to stay only for a week to discover the place.  It’s not really a lively place to stay, but its a great place to tour because of the great places to visit.

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