Bruges & Chocolates - Help needed

[tome]

Learned 4umites

Just been talking to my niece (her birthday) and she's chosen Belgium as the subject of her homework. She needs to find 10 great things about the country, and I came up with Bruges, Poiret and chocolates then pretended that there was someone knocking at the door. Need your assistance - love the place but know precious little and my street cred could take a very serious bashing here.

I recall a thread on this a while back but the search engine on here seems a bit peaky just now.

TIA

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[scarlett]

1] Jacques Brel , 2]The Singing Nun,and 3] someone called something like Spark who was credited with starting the EU. And 4] Etap boats.

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[Dougie_the_Mate]

Blankenberg, Knocke, Nicki Lauda, Paul van Himst, Eddie Merx and Joos Valgaren

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[tome]

Brilliant folks, and this within minutes of me posting. Keep 'em coming!

Cheers
Tom

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[machurley22]

The pi**ing statue - who says Belgium is boring?

Dave

<hr width=100% size=1><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by machurley22 on 02/11/2004 21:39 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[tome]

Thanks Dougie, busy Googling...

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[sailorman]

the fact that they still remember the sacrifices made during 1914 - 18 by sounding the "Last Post" every evening @ the Mennin Gate
Ships Stores,
bier,
good food,
lots of un-used beemers & mercs ( in Zeebrugge ).
the navigator" Mercator",
great beaches,
a fantastic Harbour Master "Robert" in Oostende ( if he sees this i might get a discount, some hope)


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[tome]

Was Mercator really Belgian? Furiously googling here.

Bier is a good one, always seems to me best to avoid any beer with a religious connotation.

Menin Gate goes into the list, not sure she'll wear Robert the HM

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[tome]

Dave

I can hardly add the pi**ing statue, she's only 13 and prone to giggle. More detail please.

Tom

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[FullCircle]

Jackie Ickx ( Le Mans)
All Ford Mondeos are built there
Moules/Frites
Over 200 indigenous delicious beers (Trappists mainly)
Ypres and other WW1 sites
Le Petomane (look it up!)
Ardennes Pate
Bertrand Gachot (F1) and Thierry Boutsen
Roger de Coster, and many others (Moto X World Champions)
Science EXPO
Very few traffic police
One of the 3 places in the world where I have exceeded 175MPH

<hr width=100% size=1>Really looking forward to the cheapo nasty Jeanneau 35 in March.

 

[sailorman]

cheap fags that get up brown`s nose
try Antwerp on a search engine many treasures there
painters cant think of any off hand
Antwerp - diamonds
La Panne the only part of Belgium not captured 1914 > 18 & the King set-up Court there

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[tome]

Great, thanks

Motor racing aint her scene, but she's a mean little sailor so Etap gets the nod and def Mercator. I wouldn't want to cross her with duff info - I've been frightened of her piercing looks since she was 5.

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[sailorman]

Robert will be dissapointed i will pass on your bio to him.
suggest u dont try to over-night there

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[T_S]

Why not take her to Brugge in December! The Tunnel doesn't take long with about an hours drive to the city from Calais. We have a family outing there every year.
I mentioned December as there is a Ice rink built in the main square every year near Christmas, the weather there is bloody cold mind you but loads of nice resurants to choose from for a meal and a warm up. The festive spirit there is really good!

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[tillergirl]

Didn't we invent it after Napoleon got his deserts at Waterloo. I've a feeling it was invented at the Peace of Vienna and became independent from Holland in 1830. You can drive through the whole country North to South in an hour and half, they speak two languages and consist of two peoples, Walloons and someone else but they haven't fought a civil war. In the 1950's we used their main road from Ostend to Ghent (the Jabbeke highway) as the nicest bit of straight road in Europe to get the Jaguar XK120 to break some class speed records.

It's going to be very hard to find ten great things about Belgium.

Umh - its easy to invade, its flat so on the motorways all the lorries go at the same speed so there aren't many overtaking each other which is very nice, Population of about 10 million people in 1993 so you could fit all their people in London. Life expectancy 76 years, 323 people per sq km, infant mortanlity 8 per 1000. Main products Transport equipment, plastics, iron and steel (imported as it only has coal).

You've missed the greatest thing - they were clever enough to get the HQ of the EC Commission and Parliament. Now it does matter what you think about the EU and the Commission and Parliament and all that. Think how clever it was to get it in their country. All those civil servants and policiticians have to stay somewhere and they get loads of money to spend and they can only spend in Brussels. So I think they could be said to import money. Its brilliant and must be the greatest strategic move of the late 20th century - Er boys, our economy is a bit c**p. We've only got coal and people can drive through our country so quickly that they don't have to stop and spend money - 'Weeellll, we could invent a European Parliament and build it here. It would take a hundred years before people would agree what it was for and in the meantime, they would have to come here and argue what it was for and we could disagree everytime they looked like agreeing so they would have to come again and again. They would come so often that they would ask for better roads and trains and airports and we would say we are a poor country and they would build them for us, then we would have jobs for all our people building those things and them runing them. And then when that looked like running out, we could get someone to suggest that we let another load of countries in and we have to build more official buildings to put the extra people in and build bigger roads and airports and we'll never have to worry about our economy again. It's a brilliant idea.

(I'm not helping, am I?)

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[tome]

Thanks T_S, but her homework has to be in this week. Lovely idea though, can imagine Brugge would be festive in December.

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[robp]

10 great things about Belgium...Doesn't like an easy life does she? Sorry Belques.

EU head office?
Part of Benelux? Third of it in fact
Waterloo, er no


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[T_S]

Now the history lessons out of the way! What parts have you visited?

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[tome]

Tillergirl

My god, what a perspective!

Actually, you are helping in your own way. I was trying to persuade her to find an alternative to Belgium on the basis that there aren't really 10 great things about it. She is very stubborn, but accepts (and demands) logical reasoning.

Might print your post and memorise it, ta!

Tom (lightweight intellectual)

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[Fill]

Try <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.manneken-pis.com> here</A>. Don't know about her, but it made me giggle.


PS Add Audrey Hepburn to the list

<hr width=100% size=1>It was all so different before it changed