BRUSSELS

Wednesday 27 January 2010

I flew from Seattle to London and boarded the Eurostart to Brussels. Incredibly smooth and fast the Eurostart goes under to North Sea for about 20 minutes and emerges in Calais.

From London the Eurostar goes thru many tunnels before reaching the coast, and I had to ask to find out when we were actually in the Channel. I was not disappointed as I saw exactly what I had expected to see – complete darkness!

In Brussels I stayed in BB close to the huge Basilique de Koekelberg (fifth largest Cathedral in Europe) very close to where I lived for many years. As a matter of fact I saw the Cathedral being built and had never been inside!

I really like the outside of the Cathedral, but was somewhat very disappointed with the inside. It is huge, and from the inside looks like a terribly empty huge space. In addition, the scarce stained glass windows are few and made out of a mixture of classical theme and modern themes. The whole cathedral looks like a failure to achieve a certain theme or identity.

In the other end, you can climb inside and reach a viewpoint about 160 ft above ground, from which there are very nice view of the city.

In Brussels I visited some of the favorite sights, the Grand’Place, the architectural marvels created by the a movement called “Art Nouveau” in 1893 by the architect Victor Horta. His private house is now a museum.

My most important experience in Belgium was a visit my mother’s side part of the family, my cousin Simonne, two of her children and her grand ‘children..

A short history of Belgium

Belgium, as it stands today, is a relatively young country. The Belgian Kingdome, following an upraising, was founded in 1831 by the unification of two provinces: Wallonia (French) and Flanders (Flamish).

Both provinces had been part of the Hasburg empire until 1792. They were then ruled by Frances until1815 until they became part of Netherlands until 1931. During this last period the capital alternated between Hague and Brussels.

The Revolution started in August of 1830 and eventually the Belgian Kingdome was born with Leopold of Saxe-Coburg as its first regent. Its progressive constitution recognized:

The equality of all the citizens before the law

Freedom of Assemby and Freedom of Opinion

Separation of Church and State

However, as the result of the cultural dominance of France in the 19^th century, the country was still internally divided in language as well as in its economy.The most important branches of the industries were located in the south (Wallonia)

This situation totally reversed after the Flamish gained a majority in the government.

Today, the prosperous North resents having their tax money supporting the largely depressed South, and there is a move the separate the country in three parts, each with its own government: The North, the South, and Brussels.

Find the size of Belgium on a map to realize how short-sighted this view is !!

I also visited two other cities in Belgium: Gand (a medieval city), and Liege: the site of an ultra modern train station and of a school that I attended when I was very young – Ecole D’Armurerie (a school where I learned to make shoot-guns!!).