www.the-low-countries.com
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.
Amsterdam has overtaken London as Europe’ main share trading hub for the first time since the 17th century.
The only remaining medieval castle in Flanders with a virtually intact defence system faces a new threat.
Whenever Derek Blyth visits Amsterdam, he can't help but pop into the iconic Athenaeum Boekhandel. ‘Buying a book there is almost a religious experience.’
Art photographer Athos Burez tackled 'The Baths of Ostend', the famous painting by James Ensor, and gave it his own interpretation.
Abraham Ortelius’ map, inspired by Thomas More’s book, is dotted with amusing place names that suggest the whole thing was a joke.
Back in the 1960s, the Germans had their VWs, the Italians their Fiat 500s, the French the Citroën 2CVs, and the Dutch? A sensible car called the DAF.
After having stood empty for 22 years, the Antwerp Stock Exchange building or the Handelsbeurs, opened to the public again.
When in Amsterdam, Derek Blyth likes to travel by ferry. It's free and fun.
Have you ever wondered where those cargo bikes come from?
Every evening since 1928, a group of buglers has sounded the Last Post in Ypres to honour the soldiers who died in WWI in Flanders Fields.
In 2002, the Dutch poet F. Starik came up with the idea of the Poule des doods – a pool of poets who write and read a poem for the people who have no mourners at their funeral.
Utopia is not always an imaginary place. That is what Derek Blyth discovered when he entered the stunning city library of Aalst.
The oldest Dutch department store chain De Bijenkorf is celebrating its 150th year.
Derek Blyth pays tribute to the man who has shown us the way for more than four hundred years: the Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator.
Derek Blyth invites you to walk in the footsteps of stanley brouwn, the first artist who claimed walks as art.
Walking through Brussels, sooner or later you will come across Pieter Bruegel the Elder and his enigmatic art. Derek Blyth would join you in a minute.
Since it was established in 1971, ‘De Engelbewaarder’ has been known as the first literary café in the Netherlands. Not only John Irving once drank a beer there.
Most people assume the sensible Dutch have always cycled. But the story is more complicated.
