Quick Takes 109: Belgian Style

In honor of Belgium National Day tomorrow ~ A Quick 7 about Belgium

1. About the size of Maryland, Belgium rest in western Europe above France and below the Netherlands. Luxembourg and Germany sits on the eastern border.
2. My sister and mom are there now having attended the wedding of a cousin last weekend.  I'm loving all the FB updates and can't wait to see the pictures when they get back.  While I never lived there; having visited many times and knowing that it is the homeland of much of my family (my mother's whole family, she was the only one of her siblings to stay here permanently) it has always felt familiar and dear.
3. The food is amazing with frites (french fries), chocolate, beer and waffles forming the four most commonly recognized cornerstones.  Other national favorites include mussels, rabbit, salad liegeoise, and tomato stuffed with shrimp salad.
4. Officially bilingual with Flemish spoken mostly in the north and French spoke mostly in the south.  My mom grew up in the capital Brussels which is in the south and so my mom's primary language is french, though all of my cousins also learned flemish in school.

5. Bruge, a canal city often called the Venice of the West, and Antwerp are other wonderful cities to            visit in addition to Brussels if your sight-seeing preference runs to cities.

6. There is also forty miles of beautiful seacoast, the Ardenne (the hill country) in the west and the Waterloo Memorial to check out.

7. Happy Belgian Day, to those celebrating and Good Weekend to the rest!!

Please visit Conversion Diary hosted by Jen to enjoy the rest of the week's Quick Takes.