TravellerHints! Officially the Kingdom of Belgium is a highly developed Western European country with a dense population of more than 11 million people. Interesting fact for those who call Belgium their home is, that they belong to two linguistic groups of Dutch speakers and French speakers.
Dutch is spoken mostly among the Flemish community and French dominates in Walloon population, all while high percentage of population speaks both languages at least on communication level.
Small group of people also speak German language and all three languages are official languages in the country. Belgium is part of the Benelux group of countries and neighbours with the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany and France (influencing the linguistic situation).
The capital city of Belgium is Brussels, which is also called the capital of Europe, mainly due to its significance for the European Union and European society as such.
It is a centre for European culture, hosting many EU’s meeting and is home to many international organisations’ headquarters, such as NATO, WTO or OECD. Some of the other well-known and culturally interesting cities include Antwerp, Bruges, Liege or Ghent and almost all of the Belgian population is located in urban areas.
Tourists favourites are, indeed, the colourful houses and market squares bound by multiple urban canals, breathtaking castles with amazing architecture or smaller lovely hill villages.
Culture wise, Belgium with many top-ranked restaurants offers some of the most delicious cuisine. Most popular dishes and products from Belgium include traditional fries (frites), Belgian chocolate and pralines, waffles or famous Belgian beer varieties. Belgian beer brands are repeatedly ranked among the world’s best beers, in total producing more than 1100 different kind and flavours of beer.
Belgian culture is, thanks to the signature architecture, full of interesting tourist attractions such as museums and galleries and naturally, many places belong to the UNESCO World Heritage list. Belgium has also been a great contributor to the world’s fine arts, presenting some of the greatest painters or musicians.
