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High Road to Culture in Flanders and the Netherlands
You think you know Flanders and the Netherlands. But take it from us, you haven’t seen anything yet. British journalist Derek Blyth takes you on microadventures to L-Spots, hidden and exciting places in the Low Countries.
People all over the world crave a Flemish speculoos biscuit based on wheat flour and candy syrup or caramelised sugar.
The most famous dictionary of the Dutch language is named after its creator, a nineteenth-century teacher from the Dutch border town of Sluis.
Few people know that the British Grenadier Guards got their start in Bruges.
Perhaps the most bizarre bridges ever built in the Netherlands can be seen in Spijkenisse.
In Bruges, Derek Blyth dwells on a brilliant sixteenth-century mathematician who was also known as 'the Belgian Archimedes' or 'the Leonardo Da Vinci of the Low Countries'.
A dusty plaque on the wall of a Brussels sandwich shop marks the site where Multatuli wrote his classic novel Max Havelaar.
Get to know Amsterdam and its inhabitants through its carved façade stones decorating the canalside houses.
An abandoned sixteenth-century chapel in Ghent was given a new lease of life thanks to internationally renowned artist Berlinde de Bruyckere.
The American Protestant Church of The Hague was originally built for the 1958 World's Fair in Brussels.
The pretty beach town of De Haan in West Flanders is dotted with reminders of its most famous visitor.
Derek Blyth visits a church that looks more like a pyramid from a science fiction film than a house of prayer.
It is still something of a guilty secret, but Middelburg grew prosperous from the slave trade.
Discover the tiny village of Zennegat, one of the most remote spots in Flanders.
In a country with five billion trips by bicycle a year, special roundabouts are no luxury. No wonder the Dutch make roundabouts look like design masterpieces. And now they are spreading to progressive cities around the world.
The British have a longstanding love affair with the Duffel coat. It is named after the cloth made in a small Flemish town, though it is hard to establish a link between the town and the coat.
The overgrown Campo Santo cemetery clings to a low hill in the Ghent suburb of Sint-Amandsberg has been described as the Flemish Père Lachaise.
Heisteeg, one of the narrowest streets of Amsterdam, has sparked off a furious debate about overtourism.
Although its roots date back to 1515, Café Vlissinghe in Bruges is anything but sleepy.
