Belgium (sigh)

I am living proof that you can teach an old dog new tricks. If you scroll down the blog as far back as 2013, then you will find among the first handful of posts one called "Die Deutsche Frage", a grubby little tale outlining an array of prejudices, half-truths and urban myths that I had to confront, and overcome before I could enjoy being a tourist in Gerrnany.

My weak excuse is that boyhood in the early 1960s involved a barrage of anti-German propaganda disguised as wartime darin-do: films like 633 Squadron, The Dam-busters, The Great Escape; comics like The Eagle and Biggles books, with stirring titles - Spitfire Parade and the like, all of them portrayed the Allies as  blithely heroic, and Germans as cunning and evil. Something of that prejudice rubbed off on me, even as a liberally minded adult, I was not given to looking kindly upon things Germanic. So it was a good thing that we spent the Summer in Bavaria two years ago, and I started to see twentieth century German history more rationally; that the Nazi era was 12 insane years couched within the  more complicated, broader history of modern Europe, and that Germany today is a miracle of resilience, revealing a will to progress and rebuild, and learn from the tragedies of the past. So having realised finally that there is no 'German Question' time to move on and face other latent prejudices... What about 'la question Belgique?'

In terms of being the butt of jokes it's the French who tend to pour scorn on their northern neighbours, treating the Belgians as inferior and stupid much as the English did to the Irish, or more latterly the Welsh. But even we are not averse to a bit of Belgian bashing on the side. In our case it's the country itself which has become some kind of weird  geographical joke. 

The media reports a global explosion in golf course building, for example, then intimates they now cover more of the earth's surface than Belgium. Again, worrying reports emerge concerning the destruction of tropical rain forests, we are horrified to learn that in just three months the deforestation  amounts to an area greater than half the size of Belgium. So now we no longer see Belgium as a country with a rich and conflicted history at the centre of the 'European Project', but as a giant putting green or global woodpile. Little wonder then as we drive towards it from Deutchland Über-al-ist or La Gloire we feel a tad deflated, and think, Belgium .... sigh.

But we're here for a couple of days, time for me to set aside all  preconceptions and prejudices and discover the delights of Belgium with the same determination and commitment that enabled me to overcome 'The German Question'.

Rest assured, we'll be sending regular progress reports.