Places Around the World – Chapter 2 🌎
A tour of places around the world. Let's discover amazing places on our planet 🌎🙂
Belgium 🇧🇪
Belgium is one of the smaller countries in Europe. It borders France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Germany, and it has a short coastline along the North Sea.
It’s one of the most crowded countries in Europe, and most people live in towns and cities. It’s divided into communities based on language: in the north are the Flemish, who speak Flemish (Dutch); in the south are the Walloons, who speak French; and in the east, near the German border, there’s a small German-speaking community. Besides different languages, the communities have some different customs too – for example, Walloons tend to eat dinner later in the evening than the Flemish.
Even though Belgium is small, it’s a world chocolate superpower! Belgian chocolate started out as a treat for the rich but soon became popular with everyone.
The Belgian praline – a chocolate with a soft filling – was invented in Brussels in 1912. Belgium’s chocolate tradition goes back hundreds of years!
Today Belgium makes hundreds of thousands of tons of chocolate a year and has more than 2,000 chocolate shops.
Belgium sends huge amounts of chocolate to countries all over the world, and it’s one of its most famous exports.
Belgians themselves eat a lot of chocolate too – about 6 kilograms per person every year!
Belgian waffles have also become a favorite treat around the world.
Brussels is the capital of Belgium. It’s where the country’s regions meet, and it’s home to many important institutions of the European Union.
Famous sights in Brussels:
The Grand Place – the beautiful main square in the center of Brussels, surrounded by grand buildings, mostly from the 17th century.
The Atomium is one of Belgium’s most famous symbols. It was built for the 1958 World’s Fair and is a 102-meter-tall model of an iron crystal made of nine giant balls (atoms), with a museum inside the giant balls. You can ride an elevator to the top for a panoramic view of Brussels, then explore the different spheres and learn the Atomium’s history.
Ghent is a city in Flanders, Belgium, with canals winding between the houses and picturesque bridges. The houses reflected in the water make a beautiful sight.
A famous landmark in Ghent is the Belfry: a 91-meter-tall bell tower built in the 14th century.
In the past it had an important job. It was a watchtower and a safe place to keep the city’s most important documents. The bells would ring to warn of danger or attack.
From the top of the tower you can see the whole city and the countryside around it.
Wallonia is the region in the south of Belgium. It has wide, deep canals that connect the big rivers crossing the country, and barges use them to carry goods.
One of these canals has something amazing: to get boats past big differences in height, giant boat lifts carry ships and barges up and down like elevators! These are incredible engineering projects, and visitor centers let you see up close how everything works.
The Strépy-Thieu boat lift is one of the tallest boat lifts in the world – it lifts boats more than 73 meters! The view from the top is amazing.
Art, music and architecture play a big part in Belgium’s life and history. The saxophone was born in Belgium – it was invented around 1840 by a Belgian instrument maker from the town of Dinant, and it’s named after him.
Belgium also has a rich tradition of painting. In the 15th century, painters in the region became famous for their amazing skill with oil paints, and many other famous painters came from Belgium too.
Belgium is a world center for diamonds: the city of Antwerp is one of the biggest diamond trading and cutting centers in the world.
