Bruges canal quarter at dusk
Why this is the first thing I do every time I land in Belgium.
Read MoreTrappist brewery at Orval
A closer look at one of Belgium's most rewarding experiences.
Read MoreGrand Place, Brussels, at nightfall
Where to go next once you have seen the headline sights of Belgium.
Read MoreBelgium never asks to be taken seriously, which is precisely why I take it seriously. It is a country of guildhalls and gutters, of Flemish primitives hung above frituur counters, of a language border that splits the map but not the dinner table. I have walked Bruges in November fog when the canals go the color of pewter, and I have stood in Brussels' Grand Place at dusk when the gold leaf on the guild facades catches the last light like something struck. Belgians build quietly and eat seriously, and the two habits explain nearly everything about the place. Nothing here is loud except the comic strips painted on the sides of buildings, and even those feel like an inside joke you're being generously let in on.
Chapter One
Bruges after the day trippers leave
Bruges empties out by six, and that is when it becomes itself. The tour groups retreat to Brussels or Ghent, and the canal-side houses light their windows one by one, gold against brick the color of dried blood. I like to walk from the Markt to the Begijnhof as the bells finish their hourly argument, past chocolatiers shuttering their displays and lace still stretched on frames in dim shopfronts. The city was rich in the fourteenth century and then the harbor silted up and time simply stopped negotiating with it. What's left is preserved not as a museum piece but as a place people still live oddly well, closing their shutters against tourists and opening their doors to neighbors.
“Belgium is what happens when a country decides that beauty and lunch matter more than being noticed.”
Chapter Two
Beer as a form of local government
Trappist monks in Belgium have brewed beer for centuries not to make money but to fund their monasteries, and the six authentic Trappist breweries still operate this way, selling only enough to keep the lights on and the roof sound. I've sat in the visitor café at Orval with a single glass of ale the color of dark honey, watching monks go about their afternoon as though beer were incidental to their calling rather than the reason strangers arrive by the busload. Beyond the abbeys, cafés in Ghent and Antwerp stock menus thick as small novels, and ordering becomes a small education in yeast strains, glassware, and regional loyalty that Belgians defend the way other nations defend borders.
The Short List
Do not miss in Belgium
At a glance
Belgium in numbers
- Capital
- Brussels
- Language
- Dutch, French, German
- Currency
- Euro (EUR)
- Best time
- April to June, or September to October
Did you know
Belgium has three official languages and no single national one, which is why its politics can take longer to form a government than its beer takes to ferment.