Because Belgium

[Inhapi]

I happen to live quite happily in the small country of Belgium.

 

 

Apart from the fact that the word Belgium is the most offensive word one can utter in the universe, I wonder how you gals and guys look upon Belgium from the outside ?

 

I'm not going into political discussions here but just curious how Belgium is percieved by the people that are interested in tanks.

 

so, shoot !

 

Thanks.

 

Inhapi

[Markus Becker]

Last year I made an intoxicating discovery: Belgians are incapable of brewing beer with less than 6% alcohol.

[Inhapi]

Last year I made an intoxicating discovery: Belgians are incapable of brewing beer with less than 6% alcohol.

 

Yes, Trappist beers go up to about 10%

 

I guess that there are brands with even more alcohol, but i'm not really into beer :-)

[Leo Niehorster]

It's difficult to get a handle on Belgium and the Belgians.

 

Aside from beer, chocolate, Bruges lace, and Manneken Pis, of course.

Also Hergé, Edgar P. Jacobs, Willy Vandersteen, and others from my (present day) youth.

 

Be interesting to see what else comes here.

[JasonJ]

...

 

Be interesting to see what else comes here.

 

Flowerpowercarpets.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2725887/Carpet-flowers-Brussels-central-square-country-celebrates-Turkish-immigration.html

[Tim the Tank Nut]

I got to visit once back in the late 90's. It was nice if a bit run down in the area I was in. I think we stayed in a flat on Bockstradt (street or road). There was a nice marina nearby. Some pretty women and the food was good.

[toysoldier]

We forgive all and every belgian wrongdoing ever on account of Jean Claude van Damme

[Soren Ras]

For a country that does not exist, you have pretty good beer and excellent restaurants there.

 

 

--

Soren

[Panzermann]

 

Last year I made an intoxicating discovery: Belgians are incapable of brewing beer with less than 6% alcohol.

Yes, Trappist beers go up to about 10%

 

I guess that there are brands with even more alcohol, but i'm not really into beer :-)

 

 

Satan goes up to 14%. Which is pretty much the maximum you can get with fermentation.

 

 

 

 

IMHO not so great. Just for the thrill of 14% alcohol I guess.

 

 

I for one like Grimbergen Dubbel. A rich dark beer for fasting and yes, after a glas you are full. Liquid bread for real.

[Panzermann]

For a country that does not exist, you have pretty good beer and excellent restaurants there.

 

 

--

Soren

 

 

Too much Frittur!

[Inhapi]

 

For a country that does not exist, you have pretty good beer and excellent restaurants there.

 

 

--

Soren

 

 

Too much Frittur!

 

 

Our version of fish and chips :-) (but i guess the frituur tradition is much more alive now than the fish and chips tradition :-) )

Edited March 21, 2019 by Inhapi

[Harold Jones]

I enjoyed the month I spent in Brussels for work and last summer during the "French" I&I we had an enjoyable few days in Ypres. I wouldn't mind getting over there for work more often but our UK guy handles that part of the world so chances to go for work are pretty rare.

[Detonable]

It used to be that Belgium frequently didnt have a government, as opposed to Italy, which occasionally didnt have one. Perhaps thats no longer true.

 

Had a delicious quadruple with my pork belly sandwich last week. At that alcohol level, one and done. I think it was Pretrus. Probably good with lamb, too.

 

Which is what Belgium is known for now, Abby beers, triples, etc.

Edited March 21, 2019 by Detonable

[Inhapi]

It used to be that Belgium frequently didnt have a government, as opposed to Italy, which occasionally didnt have one. Perhaps thats no longer true.

 

Had a delicious quadruple with my pork belly sandwich last week. At that alcohol level, one and done. I think it was Pretrus. Probably good with lamb, too.

 

Which is what Belgium is known for now, Abby beers, triples, etc.

 

Well, elections are coming in may. It might well turn out that forming a gvernement after these elections might well nigh be impossible. At least one party (the largest in the country at the moment) has made oblique comments that it might be a good thing that Belgium becomes ingovernable, so they can push trough their agenda of (almost or even more whispered complete) splitting up the country.....

[sunday]

For starters, I knew one of the greatest kings of Spain, the Emperor Charles V, was born in Ghent. Also, I became very appreciative of Lambic beer after reading an article in Scientific American, and thought highly of the country that produced Hergé, and Georges Lemaître, among others. Belgium also hosted the remarkable Belgian Revolution, one of the few cases in History where the mainly Catholic people decided that they were too uncomfortable with a Protestant king bossing them around, and went to gain independence from the Netherlands. They were made to accept a king, of course, but it was quite the democratic thing. Belgium also had one of the fastest Industrial Revolutions in the world.

 

Lately, however, things do not look so well. The Belgian judiciary makes impossible to have European Arrest Warrants on some Catalan con men masking as politicians honored, thus jeopardizing the whole EAW system. I saw Flemish nationalists making common cause with Catalan Separatists. Those things led to some Spaniards with experience of living in Belgium to recognize that there was more hate in Belgium against Spain than against Germany. This was disappointing.

 

Finally, with the growing secularization of Belgian society, one could only wonder how a country established upon a common faith is going to last.

[RETAC21]

Moules and frites, nuff said!!

[Colin]

Was there in 84, I found the waiters and officials stuffy and annoying, the beer excellent and the food passable.

[Ivanhoe]

For a country that does not exist, you have pretty good beer and excellent restaurants there.

Finally, somebody said what we've all been thinking.

 

I mean, beer made out of wheat. Do you really need more of a clue than that?

[Stuart Galbraith]

I like Brussels Sprouts. I just felt I had to put that out there.

Edited March 22, 2019 by Stuart Galbraith

[Ssnake]

I had one of my scarier taxi rides in Brussels; the driver was rather preoccupied with filling out paperwork on his clipboard with occasional steering impulses to change our vector from immediate collision with the opposite lane's motorists, cut several people off, made a left turn through oncoming traffic, dumped me at the wrong location, didn't help with the luggage, and in best French traditions was quite vocally offended when I didn't give a tip.

 

Whenever I catch the wife watching "Hercule Poirot", I ask her if that isn't that famous French detective. I think however she has by now realized that I'm just trolling her (and that French guy).

 

Found the Ardennes to be quite a nice and scenic region.

 

Wondered out loud in s Dutch Army symposium about "future challenges" whether we needed to go to Africa looking for failed states when we had Belgium next door (at the time they still hadn't formed a government, nearly two years after the elections). Some people actually took that remark serious. ... which maybe tells more about the Dutch than my prophetic abilities.

[Rick]

I happen to live quite happily in the small country of Belgium.

 

 

Apart from the fact that the word Belgium is the most offensive word one can utter in the universe, I wonder how you gals and guys look upon Belgium from the outside ?

 

I'm not going into political discussions here but just curious how Belgium is percieved by the people that are interested in tanks.

 

so, shoot !

 

Thanks.

 

Inhapi

From probably most Americans, "Belgium, that's a country isn't it?"

[Inhapi]

 

I happen to live quite happily in the small country of Belgium.

 

 

Apart from the fact that the word Belgium is the most offensive word one can utter in the universe, I wonder how you gals and guys look upon Belgium from the outside ?

 

I'm not going into political discussions here but just curious how Belgium is percieved by the people that are interested in tanks.

 

so, shoot !

 

Thanks.

 

Inhapi

From probably most Americans, "Belgium, that's a country isn't it?"

 

 

Well that is already something. I for myself would have difficulties in naming the 50 states, if i could not fall back on a list of BB names :-) . Anyway, I tought the Battle of the Bulge might be rather well known in the US ?

 

 

I happen to live quite happily in the small country of Belgium.

 

 

Apart from the fact that the word Belgium is the most offensive word one can utter in the universe, I wonder how you gals and guys look upon Belgium from the outside ?

 

I'm not going into political discussions here but just curious how Belgium is percieved by the people that are interested in tanks.

 

so, shoot !

 

Thanks.

 

Inhapi

From probably most Americans, "Belgium, that's a country isn't it?"

 

 

Well that is already something. I for myself would have difficulties in naming the 50 states, if i could not fall back on a list of BB names :-) . Anyway, I tought the Battle of the Bulge might be rather well known in the US ?

 

[Ivanhoe]

Well that is already something. I for myself would have difficulties in naming the 50 states, if i could not fall back on a list of BB names :-) . Anyway, I tought the Battle of the Bulge might be rather well known in the US ?

Only amongst servicing military and history buffs. For the average American younger than about 65, the Battle of the Bulge has to do with their waistlines (it is a common double entendre in the American press and entertainment media, though the original entendre is unknown to most).

 

I have read it several times now that American history, as taught in public high schools, begins at the end of the Vietnam conflict.

[Inhapi]

 

Well that is already something. I for myself would have difficulties in naming the 50 states, if i could not fall back on a list of BB names :-) . Anyway, I tought the Battle of the Bulge might be rather well known in the US ?

Only amongst servicing military and history buffs. For the average American younger than about 65, the Battle of the Bulge has to do with their waistlines (it is a common double entendre in the American press and entertainment media, though the original entendre is unknown to most).

 

I have read it several times now that American history, as taught in public high schools, begins at the end of the Vietnam conflict.

 

 

Ah okay. Here we get lessons on prehistory, and written history begins with the writings of Caesar. Belgians are quite proud of his qoute: "Off all the Gauls, the Belgians are the bravest", after all, the Belgae were the only tribes in Gaul that succeeded in completely wiping out 15 cohorts of Caesars army (nominally 1,5 legions worth, but with legions always being undermanned in that period, probably about two combat ready legions at normal strenght).....in a little foretaste of Teutoburger Wald. I guess this is the heaviest defeat Caesar ever suffered, even compared to the losses in the civil war against Roman Legions. (apart from the troops lost in a storm at sea when crossing the Adriatic)

Edited March 22, 2019 by Inhapi

[Harold Jones]

Well that is already something. I for myself would have difficulties in naming the 50 states, if i could not fall back on a list of BB names :-) . Anyway, I tought the Battle of the Bulge might be rather well known in the US ?

 

 

 

Even when it was taught in schools WW2 was not covered in any great depth, you might get 15 minutes on the battle of the bulge, before moving on to Hitler's suicide and the bombing of Hiroshima. I learned most of my European geography playing Avalon Hill and SPI war games.