Brilliant things about Belgium!

[belgo]

Just so we don't feel left out, and we need cheering up with this weather and economy etc.

I'll start with the obvious:
the food! Reliably decent restaurants.
The fact that we get the new Playmobil here 6/12 months before the UK

Never did brunch in O'Reillys. Me and dd had a very nice brunch in the Hairy Canary once though/

What a great thread!

The best things about Belgium?

It's close to the UK so I get many more visitors than I used to.
I have lots of British and other English-speaking friends
Good food
Lots of parks and child-friendly activities
Plankedael
The Natural Sciences Museum
Lots of random art and sculptures around the place
Easily accessible to lots of European places

There must be more...

Diamonds in Antwerp; Reblochon cheese from Delhaize; the fab bread; the hospital care (Mum ended up in A&E in July); chocolate; beer; Sundays being Sundays and not a UK shopping fest; Christmas not beginning in August; the astounding variety and packaging of potatoes....

I am having a nostalgia-fest here!

May I offer: Kessel-lo, Leuven in general, the Ancienne Belgique, the cashiers in the supermarket near BSB (think it is Carrefour now, it was GB when I was there) who speak at least three languages, SHAPE radio which I used to listen to on a Sunday afternoon while I was baking (with all its little announcements about which gate was shut that day), the fact that you can drive about an hour in any direction and be in another country. Oh and being able to do an international bank transfer from the hole in the wall. Really just the ease of living there. I thought the French health system and banking would be similar to Belgium...how wrong I was.

The cashiers still speak 3 languages in Carrefour Mrs S!

Everything Porto and RuthChan said and nearly everything Scary said (would love a diamond from Antwerp to replace the one lost from my engagement ring many years ago - I hinted for our silver wedding anniversary this year but got a (much-loved) kindle instead, I don't know that I've ever had Reblochon cheese and I much prefer UK potatoes).

One of my favourite things is the how accommodating some professionals are (eg GPs and vets). For all the red tape you come up aganist officially here, they seem to bend over backwards to help,even at the most inconvenient of hours. Maybe it's because you usually go to their surgery on the ground floor of their home so they are providing much more of a relaxed and personal service.

Calamity, not sure when you were here but there is much less dog-shit now than when I first came here 26 years ago.

Reblochon is used in Tartiflette Longtime and melts to an oozing unctuousness.

I like the spuds here, except can't really get good ones for baking.
It's our 25th next week, and I have hinted very strongly that I expect something shiny that isn't alcoholic or drivable!

Agree about the vets, and the cattery that we put His Imperial Smallness into is great as well. Choice of food, and they write down which ones he'll eat!

Scary, which potatoes do you use? The potatoes in the UK seem to have much more flavour somehow.

I have (fingers crossed) not had much experience of medical care here, but was dead impressed last week. After phoning St Luc to ask what I should do about dd's plaster cast, and getting a rather abrupt response, I went to see my lovely GP. She had me sorted out with an appointment at MCH in W-O within 5 mins - and for within 48 hours. And the clinic was fantastic! No waiting around, lovely doctor, state of the art equipment. Sadly dd's arm isn't mended yet though.

I do wonder though, what do you DO if you don't have available cash for these things? I know I can claim it back - I could probably afford a holiday on the stack of receipts I currently have - but what if you don't have the money in the first place?

I love:
the absence of binge drinkers,
good quality cafes just about everywhere (i.e. football grounds, museums, tiny villages etc.)
high standard of cuisine without being pretentious,
delicious beer, chocolate, waffles, speculoos, bread that doesn't taste of cardboard,
doctors who have so much time to spend with you,
the custom of greeting everybody when you first walk into a room or office,
being able to live so close to a capital city and yet enjoy the nearby forests and countryside,
being so well placed you can visit Holland, Germany, Luxemburg or France within an hour or so,
the excellant, personal banking (you get to talk to REAL people and not all this press 1, press 2 rubbish)
the multicultural aspect (more Brussels I suppose)
the fact that not too many towns or cities were destroyed by 1960s urban planners

that will do for now!

Someone once took me on a first date to one of the diamond houses in antwerp. Sadly I wasn't allowed to take a gift home, but the behind the scenes stuff was amazing.

Porto, if you're on the dole/low income I know you get medicines even cheaper than those with a mutuelle but I'm not sure about hospital. Also, you can claim for money back from the mutuelle without having to prove you've paid the bill so you could, in theory, put the green form you get for the mutuelle in before the bill has to be paid (not possible for anywhere you have to pay on the spot but possible for anything you get a bill for). They're quite quick at paying back so I guess it works. I think more of a problem is the part not reimbursed by the mutuelle, though for large amounts you must be able to pay over a period of time because my cleaning lady was still paying off her husband's heart transplant long after he died .

mapleleef, yes all of those things! This thread is good for me because after so long here I tend to think of all of the bad things about Belgium and take all the good things for granted. Whereabouts are you mapleleef?

Back to school tomorrow. I'm not going to add the Belgian school system on here though!

mapleleef - I HATE the culture of having to greet everyone in the morning. I am most anti-social! I need coffee and to check my inbox. Kissing and shaking hands and saying good morning in 3 languages is to much for me. Then you have to remember who you do shaking hands with and who expects a kiss, and who is happy with a vague wave across the office....

The first day back in January is a HUGE trial to me as you have to kiss everyone, whether you want to or not!

I'll bear that in mind Porto next time we meet !

I am happy to kiss you Longtime. There are blokes at work that i would really rather not though

Hideous, hideous kissing. I try to avoid being in the office first day back in the new year. I also avoid my birthday and those of others. If pressed, I offer an extended hand and a firm shake. I'm British thank you.

Longtime - Kriel from Carrefour for general plain boiled, and sometimes cook them in olive oil or goose fat. Rattes are nice too (almost like a fir apple spud) and the puree ones I use for mash and roasting. Delhaize do some interesting spuds as well.

I have to admit to buying the puree ones for roasting - more farinaceous - don't you know, and buying frozen mash!

Frozen mash? Why?

I have to admit though that I bought frozen sliced onions yesterday as dh has invited about 20 people for a BBQ today, and frozen ones seemed easier for that amount of people.

Haven't read the whole thread, but DH and I went round Belgium on a motorbike pre-kids and definitely the best things about Belgium is the food. I still dream about the steaks and the eel in green sauce. I don't drink beer but DH loved it. And they were not stingy about serving spirits either. And such linguists! Nothing humbles you like being asked what you would like to drink in 5 different languages before they hit on the one that works.

And the idiosyncratic hotels - every one of them was a bit odd, and looked like someone has given up on some bit of diy. It was very entertaining.

I've got one (even though I don't live there).

My best friend.

She moved out there 2 years ago and is very brilliant.

give her back you Belgian meanies :o

So clean and tidy . Apart from the dog-poo maybe.... And everyone's garden is so neat.

Mine isn't - I hate gardening. I'd rather have a deck than a sloping lawn and bloody great pine trees that shed cones everywhere. Mind you, they make great fire lighters.

Hiya,
My brother and his girls are going to Brussels for ten days over Easter. We used to live there as kids but haven't been back for years. My parents still have a house there which he's staying at. But he wants advice on fun stuff to do with teenagers/pre teens there. His two girls are 14 and 12 , and the 14 year old will have friend with her. He won't have a car, but staying near the trams in Woluwe St. Pierre in between Av Tervuren and Place Dumon.
Any ideas of fun stuff he can do with them greatly appreciated. My folks were due to be there but had to cancel, so he is on his own (divorced) and likely to struggle to entertain them and himself!

bump