Belgium is a small country. Not quite so small that if you blink you'll miss it, but small enough that a couple of hours of focused driving will get you from the capital, Brussels, to any corner of the realm. Yet the variety of culture, language, history, and cuisine crammed into this little space would do credit to a country many times its size. Belgium's diversity is a product of its location at the cultural crossroads of western Europe. The boundary between the Continent's Germanic north and Latin south -- Europe's Mason-Dixon line -- cuts clear across the country's middle, leaving Belgium divided into two major ethnic regions, Dutch-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia.
Famous, That's All -- Let there be no more "Name me one famous Belgian" jokes. Without even mentioning the great Flemish Old Masters, here is more than one from the modern era. Adolphe Sax (1814-94): invented the saxophone; Victor Horta (1861-1947): a founder of Art Nouveau; Belgian-American Leo Baekeland (1863-1944): invented Bakelite in 1909 and was called the "father of plastics"; Georges Simenon (1903-90): author of the Inspector Maigret books; Hergé, or Georges Rémi (1907-83): created Tintin.
Also Belgian: surrealist painter Renée Magritte (1898-1967); singer/songwriter Jacques Brel (1929-78); Agatha Christie's fictional detective Hercule Poirot (ageless). And the still very much alive "French" rocker Johnny Halliday; Hollywood star Jean-Claude "the Muscles from Brussels" Van Damme; schmaltzy singer Helmut Lotti; world champion Formula One driver Jacky Ickx; and multiple Tour de France winner Eddy "the Cannibal" Merckx? Belgian, or Belgian-born, every last one of them.
