Oostende and Ghent, Belgium
“ An arrow pointing to the heart of England.” This was how the Low Countries were traditionally viewed by English diplomats. It was an axiom of English foreign policy not to allow any major European power to dominate Flanders. The creation of Belgium in 1830, always an uneasy amalgam of Flemings (Flemish or Dutch speakers) and Walloons (French speakers) was an English device to keep both France and the Netherlands in check. It was the violation of Belgian neutrality by German soldiers en route to France in 1914 that brought Great Britain into the First World War.
The political history of the Low Countries has been highly complicated. Culturally, however, Burgundian, Dutch and Spanish influences have come together to produce an intense cultural life lovingly described by Simon Schama in his best-seller as an “Embarrassment of Riches.” Our visits to the medieval cities of Bruges yesterday and Ghent today were inevitably all too brief. Having grown rich on the cloth trade, Flemish art was in the vanguard of European cultural achievement. This morning we stood in wonder before Van Eyck’s fifteenth century triptych altarpiece in St. Baaf’s cathedral.
Belgium today is a place of pilgrimage for lovers of beer and chocolate. A large number of abbeys have brewed high quality beers for centuries, Leffe Abbey continuously since 1284. Some of the best brews, trappisten, are still brewed by Trappist monks, which, I suppose, helps to keep the recipes secret. Fine chocolatiers, like Neuhaus, conveniently situated just outside the cathedral, ensured that all tastes were catered for on our tour this morning. Neuhaus claims to have made the world’s first pralines, samples of which were being handed around the bus as we returned to Oostende for a free afternoon. In this bustling little fishing port we had time to stroll, shop or sit and watch from café terraces before our departure for London in the early evening.
“ An arrow pointing to the heart of England.” This was how the Low Countries were traditionally viewed by English diplomats. It was an axiom of English foreign policy not to allow any major European power to dominate Flanders. The creation of Belgium in 1830, always an uneasy amalgam of Flemings (Flemish or Dutch speakers) and Walloons (French speakers) was an English device to keep both France and the Netherlands in check. It was the violation of Belgian neutrality by German soldiers en route to France in 1914 that brought Great Britain into the First World War.
The political history of the Low Countries has been highly complicated. Culturally, however, Burgundian, Dutch and Spanish influences have come together to produce an intense cultural life lovingly described by Simon Schama in his best-seller as an “Embarrassment of Riches.” Our visits to the medieval cities of Bruges yesterday and Ghent today were inevitably all too brief. Having grown rich on the cloth trade, Flemish art was in the vanguard of European cultural achievement. This morning we stood in wonder before Van Eyck’s fifteenth century triptych altarpiece in St. Baaf’s cathedral.
Belgium today is a place of pilgrimage for lovers of beer and chocolate. A large number of abbeys have brewed high quality beers for centuries, Leffe Abbey continuously since 1284. Some of the best brews, trappisten, are still brewed by Trappist monks, which, I suppose, helps to keep the recipes secret. Fine chocolatiers, like Neuhaus, conveniently situated just outside the cathedral, ensured that all tastes were catered for on our tour this morning. Neuhaus claims to have made the world’s first pralines, samples of which were being handed around the bus as we returned to Oostende for a free afternoon. In this bustling little fishing port we had time to stroll, shop or sit and watch from café terraces before our departure for London in the early evening.
