northsea's VirtualTourist Home Page

Belgium is about the size of Maryland in the U.S. (for our Am. friends). We are bordering in the Nord to The Netherlands,in the East to Germany, in the South-East to Luxembourg,in the South to France, and in the West , by crossing the channel, to Great Britain.
In the North of the country we have the Flamish provinces and in the South the French (Wallons) provinces. What is green colored on the map is heath and forest.
I'm living in the province of West-Vlaanderen.(honored by Jacques Brel in the song "Le pays plat qui est le mien"
My home-town is Izegem and WAS in earlier times worldfamous for shoe-manufacturing - brushes and furniture.
Under here some snapshots of West-Vlaanderen

This is what we call a "vlasschaard",it's the field where the flax is drying.
After a lot of handling we get the famous "Linen"

As it's called "The Venice of the North"
I believe a lot of travellers must know or has been to that place. The most famous product of Bruges is lace, but to day be carefull if you intend to buy lace of Bruges,mostly it comes from China. Lace of Bruges has become nearly priceless.

For Ypres, the First World War signified the tragic low-point of its history. Ypres lay surrounded by gentle hills and slopes at the centre of the curved front line, the Ypres Salient. We paid a terrible price for our freedom : more than one million dead, wounded or missing from the completely devastated town. A real sledge hammer blow from which Ypres slowly but surely recovered. The town has been recontructed in its original style and has regained its economic power. Nevertheless, there remain silent memorials, souvenirs of the deep wound that the '14-'18 conflict carved into the hearts of the town and the region : authentic trenches in Sanctuary Wood, the daily Last Post under Menin Gate, In Flanders Field Museum, life-sized reconstructions of scenes from the war in the Hooge Crater Museum, St.George's Memorial Church, 170 British military cemeteries, the bunker of John McCrae, where he wrote the poem "In Flanders Fields", etc.

Ostend is known as "The queen of the beach resorts". This place is the favorite holiday destination of many British tourists. it was in the past also the summerresidence of our kings. The city has everything to please the tourists: a beautiful beach - a Casino - a Spa hotel and a horse race- course.
It's a paradise for fish dishes

Dinant is a small town cozied up against the Meuse river. There are two buildings longside the river, the Cathedral Notre Dame with a bronze onion Dome and the Citadel (fortress) who was rebuild by the Dutch in 1820. The old fortress was destroyed in 1703 by the French. A famous native of Dinant was Adolphe Sax the inventor of the saxophone.

For a long time, Durbuy was known as the smallest town in the world. It was granted "town" in 1331 with 400 residents. To-day it has about 8.000 inhabitants and is very well know by lovers of fine food.

Make your choice.