Belgium

Travel to Belgium to see a tiny country where people speak Valonese or Flemish (which are cousins of French and Dutch) depending on the region. Fortunately, most also speak fluent English so communication was not a problem. It's a good many years since I was there and I can't remember the capital Brussels really impressing me that much. Antwerp was better, with it's small-town, Flemish touch. They make some pretty good chocolate there and I couldn't resist eating it by the kilo (unfortunately, it was cheap enough for me to afford it). The locals in turn eat Mussels by the kilo but sorry, that isn't quite something I really care for. Rubens used to live in Antwerp and you can visit his house. The harbour of Antwerp can be toured by car and is quite impressive.

Holland isn't the only country with windmills. They have some in Belgium too (and in Spain..)	The inside of Antwerp's Railway station
Landscape. On the horizon in the center of the road you can see the cooling tower of a nuclear reactor	Wonderful old Flemish Facades

Church and Citadel	View down from the Citadel
Antwerp's 'Our Lady' Cathedral	Evening view from my hotel window
Antwerp statue by the waterfront and cathedral in the distance	National Maritime Museum Spleen in Antwerp
Brussels main square	Chopped off church..
I decided to take a picture down from my hotel balcony	Antwerp's Guild Halls at Market Square
Inside Ruben's house, it looks like one of his paintings. He seems to have been a savvy sales- and businessman, managing to make quite a bit of money from his 'factory-produced' paintings. He had loads of lesser painters and apprentices doing the tedious work, such as backgrounds. The maestro would step in when details and the finishing touch was required. He could thus afford to live in style...	Inside Ruben's house in Antwerp

This was 1985. They were building a gigantic canal near Antwerp harbour.	Misty Luxemburg (sorry that I put this in with Belgium, but the few pictures I took there don't warrant a separate page)