Belgium is like that quirky friend you have who is classically beautiful, has a heart of gold, and wears bright blue extensions in her straight, blond hair and striped rainbow stockings under her black pencil skirt. You know what I’m talking about, right? Surely you have a friend like that.
It’s filled with all sorts of quirky people
and all sorts of quirky architecture.
Here we have a discount supermarket underneath those beautiful windows.
I think I’m in love.
I came home from our weekend wanting to tell you all about it, but I realized it would be a mammoth post. So I shall have to content myself with telling you about Belgium today, and give you a guided tour of Brussels tomorrow very soon.
We stayed just outside of Brussels, which is part of Wallonie. The Wallons speak French. There are also the Flamands, who speak Dutch and retain the influence from when they were occupied by the Netherlands. And there is a small part that speaks German as well.
Stad means "city" in Flamand. Everything is written in both languages.
Belgium didn’t even become an independent country until 1830.
Before that they were occupied by Spain, Austria, France and the Netherlands. They kept bouncing around until they couldn’t take it anymore.
When Napolean Bonaparte was finally defeated by the British at Waterloo, which is a city in Belgium, and which was under French occupation at the time . . . 
(you could see the lion monument that commemorates where the battle took place from the window where we spent the night)
. . . the Belgians were occupied once more for about 15 years by the Netherlands.
But given their centuries of oppression, and the fact that they shared neither language nor religion with the Netherlands (the Wallons are Catholic and the Dutch, predominantly Protestant), they decided they had had enough. This weekend they were celebrating their independence so there were lots of people in traditional costumes.
Belgium is known for its beer
its fries
(and yes, that is a line to buy french fries in the middle of the afternoon)
its chocolate
its speculoos
(this is a cookie similar to gingerbread, but more crunchy and more of a taste of cinnamon than ginger)
its comics
(We didn’t have time to visit the Musée de la BD – the museum where you can see TinTin and the Smurfs – which are Belgian, by the way).
There’s also the lace, although a lot of it is being imported from China now. We went to Belgium because my husband was asked to preach at our sister church there on Sunday. They had heard him preach at our French-speaking church retreat that is held once every two years in Alsace, and since they don’t have a minister, they invite people to come give a message from time to time. It’s a small congregation of the absolute loveliest people. I don’t think I’ve ever received a warmer welcome (although it’s a close race with the Philippines and Taiwan and Kenya).
We only had a couple of hours to tour Brussels because we had been invited to dinner by a family that lived about 45 minutes outside of the city. Brussels is actually quite small, but the suburbs extend far into the countryside. The drive was so scenic.
It seems like every street in Belgium is lined with trees.
I suspect this is the diplomat area (forgive the blurry pictures).
Did you know that Brussels is considered the de-facto capital of the European Union? They have a history of hosting the other member countries, which is how it all came about. I suppose that is why there is such a large, impressive neighborhood for the diplomats.
We ate dinner in this charming house.
Just gorgeous. And these are the new friends our children made.
The next day we were given such a welcome at service, followed by a pot-luck lunch so we could all get to know each other better. And then we were sent on our way with a 60-piece chocolate sampler from Newhaus. I just spent a weekend being showered with love and affection. No wonder I love this place.
And I’m sending some of that love and affection your way.
PS If you missed it, my last post was a giveaway that it going on until this Friday. And if I do say so myself, it’s a cool giveaway, so feel free to leave a comment for a chance to win!
Mmmmm. I have a friend from Belgium, and she makes absolutely delicious fries. And her own mayonnaise.
What a gorgeous tour! I could feel you joy radiating from this post:)
Mind if I ask a silly question? When Hubby and I spent out 10 days in Paris we were (happily) suprised that so many people spoke English. Is this also the case in Belgium?
So many places in the world I would love to see!
I’m late in replying, but believe it or not, even more people speak English in Belgium. I think it’s because it’s already a tri-lingual country.
You said beer and then you lost me.
Kidding.
I love that this post was a little bit of history.
I am a nut for history. Just ask my husband who I made endure a 3 1/2 hour walk through an Ottawa museum.
I love that family picture and I love Belgium! So beautiful. xo
WOW thanks for taking me to Belgium. My ex went there for a business trip and the pictures he took were beautiful but your pictures win by 10x 😀
You’re so sweet Maureen. (Don’t tell him).
I love the traditional costumes…like something from a fairytale! Sigh, so many countries so little time. Thank you for sharing.
I know! We really lucked out on the timing of our visit with those gorgeous costumes.
Speculoos!! I am OBSESSED with Speculoos. We first tried the biscuits when my sister-in-law came back from France with some, and I was hooked. We’ve been trying to find it here to no avail, and we even looked online! (yes this is the extent to which I go for food)
So glad you had a good time, and love the family photo!
Beautiful family picture!
I’m glad that it was such a wonderful weekend & I hope that you get a chance to return sometime soon!
Oh thank you, dear Jackie.
I think of mussels when I think of Belgium. Yummy!
What a good looking family! Love the photo!
It’s true – I didn’t mention mussels. Although I did think of a word play on mussels in Brussels.
Belgium is gorgeous…one of my favorite places in Europe! So envious that you are so close to it…lucky lady!
I told my Belgian friend that her country is one of your faves and she was very pleased.
I love the first sentence of this post and I LOVE that last picture of you guys. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen a picture of the five of you together. I know there are very few of those in our family. I worked in Brussels for a bit and I learned just enough french to get me to my office by taxi and to order a veggie sandwich without butter (they all thought I was crazy!) from the awful cafeteria at our office. But I stayed close to the Grand Place, so dinners were a different story! Was that beer shop on the Grand Place by any chance? It looks an awful lot like an olive oil shop that used to be there. The hotel would leave me a big box of chocolates during each of my stays. Oh, miss it! Looks like a great weekend away. Good for you!
Yes – the beer place was just off the Grand Place, and right next to an olive place. Probably the same one.
When I visited the Netherlands this spring, I’d hoped to get to Belgium for a few days, but we just ran out of time.
Your photos (and the chocolate!) make me want to plan a trip to Belgium.
We didn’t visit Belgium until we had lived in France for quite awhile, so we went in with the opinions that our French friends had shared, mainly that ‘le belge’ were crazy drivers. So, off we finally went to visit Brussels and Bruges, and we were cut off very dangerously two times. We spent the rest of the trip laughing that those two cars that cut us off must be the same ones and they just send them to drive around the border and scare off the French.
That’s funny. Ironically, bad driver is the one thing I didn’t hear about the Belgians. Unfortunately, I heard everything else.
And here I thought they were known only for their waffles.