Belgium is a small country at the crossroads of northern Europe that consistently surprises visitors with the richness of what it packs into its modest dimensions. Flanked by the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and France, with a short but characterful North Sea coastline, Belgium is a nation of three distinct cultural communities — Flemish Dutch-speaking in the north, French-speaking Wallonia in the south, and a small German-speaking community in the east — whose creative tension has produced some of Europe's most distinctive art, architecture, food, and drink.
The medieval Flemish cities of Bruges and Ghent are among the best-preserved in northern Europe. Bruges, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a canal-laced city of Gothic guild houses, medieval belfries, and chocolate shops reflected in dark water. Its Groeningemuseum houses a collection of Flemish Primitive paintings — Jan van Eyck, Hans Memling, Hieronymus Bosch — that represent the birth of northern European art. Ghent is slightly less polished and considerably more alive — its castle of the Counts, the Cathedral of St. Bavo housing van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece, and the café-lined waterfront of the Graslei are extraordinary, and the student energy of its university gives the city a vitality that Bruges sometimes lacks.
Brussels, the federal capital and de facto capital of the European Union, is one of Europe's most cosmopolitan cities. The Grand Place — a sixteenth-century square of guildhalls and the Gothic Town Hall — is widely regarded as the most beautiful public square in Europe. Art Nouveau architecture is scattered through the city's residential neighbourhoods, the legacy of Victor Horta whose Hôtel Tassel and own house are UNESCO-listed masterworks. The Magritte Museum traces the surrealist tradition that Belgium has contributed to world art with a particular intensity.
Belgium's contribution to global food culture extends well beyond the obvious. Belgian chocolate — made with the nation's characteristically high cocoa content and refined technique — is a genuine world leader. Belgian beer, with hundreds of distinctive abbey ales, saisons, lambics, and Trappist brews, is arguably the most diverse brewing tradition in the world. Frites — Belgian fried potatoes served with mayonnaise and eaten from a paper cone — are a national institution.
Spring and early autumn offer the most pleasant weather. Belgium rewards those who look closely — it is a country where quality is expressed in almost everything, from a cathedral window to a perfect waffle.
