Europe Bound: Flanders

Posted by Katrien Vander Straeten Jun 9, 2006

The weather was glorious, and the train ride back was relaxed and pretty. The countryside between Brussels and Antwerp is quite rural. Pasture with cows, sheep and horses, upturned fields, copses and orchards, small farms with geese and old cars in the yard, then small towns of red brick houses, colorful flowers in the window boxes at the stations, people's back yards.

We often passed bicyclists, ambling along brooks. And all along the track, there were wildflowers, among millions of red poppies nodding in the breeze. The landscape being absolutely flat, I could always see at least one church tower in the distance.

On the train people were speaking Dutch (both the Holland and the Flemish accents), French, German, Moroccan, Turkish, and English.

This is the Flanders that I know and love: to those with a will to see the past, still reminiscent of the Middle Ages; but also growing more global, more international with each passing minute.