A federal country, with three
official languages and an intense
regional rivalry, Belgium has a
cultural diversity that belies its
rather dull reputation among
travellers. Its population of around
ten million is divided between
Flemish-speakers (about sixty
percent) and French-speaking
Walloons (forty percent), with a few
pockets of German-speakers in the
east. Prosperity has shifted back
and forth between the two
communities over the centuries, and
relations remain acrimonious. The
constitution was redrawn in 1980 on
a federal basis, with three separate
entities: the Flemish North, Walloon
South, and Brussels, which is
officially bilingual (although its
population is eighty percent
French-speaking).
The north and south of Belgium
are visually very different. Marking
the meeting of the two, Brussels
, the capital, is a culturally
varied city at the heart of the
European Union. The north ,
made up of the provinces of West and
East Flanders, Antwerp, Limburg and
much of Brabant, is mainly flat,
with a landscape and architecture
not unlike Holland. Antwerp
is the second city, a bustling old
port with doses of high art,
redolent of its sixteenth-century
golden age. Further south and west
are the great historic cities, Bruges
and Ghent , with a stunning
concentration of Flemish art and
architecture. Another enjoyable
inland Flanders town is the
cathedral city of Mechelen ,
halfway between Brussels and
Antwerp. The southern reaches of Brabant
are French-speaking, and merge into
the Walloon province of Hainaut
- rich agricultural country, scarred
by pockets of industry and boasting
the historic city of Tournai
. East of here lies Belgium's most
scenically rewarding region, the Ardennes
, an area of deep, wooded valleys,
high elevations and dark caverns.
The Ardennes reach across the
border into the northern part of the
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , a
verdant landscape of rushing rivers
and high hills topped with crumbling
castles. Diekirch , Vianden
and Echternach are perhaps
the three best centres for touring
the countryside, and Luxembourg
City itself is at least worth a
stop, although its population of
around 80,000 is tiny by
capital-city standards.
