Belgium holidays

Belgium always had alot more going for it than the faceless political and bureaucratic buildingsthat litter the outskirts of its capital, Brussels,would have you believe. A stringof engaging historiccities such as Bruges, Ghent, Liège, Namur (and Brussels itself)offer impressive architecture,lively nightlife, first-rate cuisine and numerous otherattractions for visitors. Today, the anachronistic images of ‘boring Belgium’have been well and truly banished, as more and more people discover its veryindividual charms for themselves.

There is reinvented Antwerp, a hotbedof fashion and slick modern design, along with the more bucoliccharms of the beautiful mountainous Ardennes region to the east, and thedelightfully picturesque Meuse Valleyas well as the sweeping sand of thecoastline resorts of the western seaboard. Belgium is also a land whosespecialities include ubiquitous beers, delicate chocolates, moules frites and Belgian waffles.

Easy to both access and totravel around, pocket-sized Belgiumis divided into the Flemish north(Flemish-speaking) and the Walloon south(French-speaking). Brussels,the capital, is the heart of both the country and the European Union, as wellas the headquarters of NATO.

Belgium’s democracy is of the typically stable, cautiously progressive,western-European liberal type. The principal domestic problem is continuingtension between the Flemish-speaking north and the French-speaking south of thecountry. However, throughout the years, Belgium has evolved towards an efficient federal system. Fivereforms have been necessary to achieve this (in 1970, 1980, 1988-89, 1993 and2001). In 2005, Belgiumcelebrated 25 years of federalism and for the first time ever, article one ofthe Belgian Constitution stated that ’Belgium is a federal state made outof communities and regions’.