BELGIUM - INTRODUCTION

As it is the first time I write here, I want to present myself so that you know a little more about me.

I live in Belgium since I were 15 and came here because my father started working in 1958 for the European Union, called at that time the Commun Market. I kept my German passport, but that's about all. Belgium has become my country.










And here I am, 63 years old at least on my official papers.

From this European map you can see that Belgium is a very small country, and has only 10 millions of inhabitants maybe a few more, if the birth quote increased since the last statistics.

It's really located in the middle of Europe. If you drive about 200 km (124 miles) to north, south, east and west you always arrive in another country. Belgium is surrounded by France, Holland, Germany and Luxemburg. It's a flat country besides the south where the Ardennes are located, but the highest mountain there is only 694 m (2,277 ft) high.

1.
2.




3.

Belgium is "devided" in three different language regions. 1 is the french, 2 the flemish (dutch) and 3 the german speaking region.

Although there are always linguistic quarrelings between the flemish and french speaking population, most of the belgians are going very well together and it's (as always) the politicians who take advantage of the situation. Of course as in all countries there are also real extremists.

The whole country is held together by the belgian King. As small as our country is, we have a King, a Queen and a bunch of princes and princesses. King Albert II is very appreciated by the whole population, he has a lot of humor and does his job very well. Queen Paola is liked or not liked that depends. She had been a very pretty girl and still is a very nice looking women now in her late sixties. I like her very much.

Queen Paola and King Albert II

The capital of Belgium is Brussels, which at the same time is also the capital of Europe.

So this was just a little overlook to let you know my country.

I personally live in Waterloo, at the suburb of Brussels. It's only about 20 min away from the center, which of course depends on the circulation.

Waterloo became more known with the Abba song "Waterloo" although it is a very historical place where Napoleon lost his battle against what we call today Europe.