Giants in Belgium
It’s not like I never go on holiday, but Betsy, and I decided it was time for a short trip. The fact that, only a week later, we were going to Madrid for the weekend didn’t really matter. We needed to leave this weekend too and so we did. Capiche?
We opted for the south of Belgium. Not really an area people generally go to on holiday, but it turned out to be fun.
Because the area is not run over by tourists, the experience is more authentic and the towns around Charlerois have come a long way in the last 15 years, leaving their gloomy past behind and enjoying the new economic activities in this part of the country.
One of the things I noticed was that the area was very ‘French’. Yes, they speak French down there, but the countryside, the cities, the people, the restaurants, they all seemed to say ‘we are French’, not really Belgian. Nevertheless, people were surprisingly friendly. Something that’s not all that common to encounter as a Dutchman in Belgium.