Latest / Wander the World with Pippa Hudson / Wander the World: Discovering the wonders of Belgium

Transcript

Wander the World: Discovering the wonders of Belgium · Wander the World with Pippa Hudson

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Join the conversation.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: This is Cape Talk.
• 0:06
  Speaker 3: It is time to wander the world, and today we
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: are doing some armchair travel to Belgium, and our guide
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: on this journey is going to be a very familiar
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: voice to you. My former colleague, Leander Basselpierre, recently returned
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: to South Africa. She's just been appointed business editor for
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: the Africa Report. Congratulations Leanne, and welcome home. It's great
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: to see you back on SASIL.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Pepa.
• 0:25
  Speaker 4: It's really great to be back and to be back
• 0:27
  Speaker 4: on Cape Talk. I've been listening for the past couple
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: of months and it just feels like so warm and fuzzy,
• 0:32
  Speaker 4: all the familiar voices, and I'm very happy.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: To be back.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: Well, we're so happy to have you with us today.
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: Because the minute I saw Taste of Belgium was happening
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: this weekend, I said to my producer, we need to
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: talk about travel to Belgium and we are going to
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: tell you all about Taste of Belgium at the end
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: of the interview. But then I said, we know exactly
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: who we need to get in as a guest for
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: this segment, because the clue is in her surname.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: Leanne.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: You married to the Belgian national and your boys are
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: Belgian South African citizens, so you spend quite a bit
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: of time though, don't you.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: We do spend lots of time.
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: So for the past twenty years, even before we started
• 1:03
  Speaker 4: having kids, we've spent our summers there, and thanks to
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: global warming, the summers are becoming hot and hot. I
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: remember first going to Belgium about twenty years ago in
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: the summer and I was like, this is not summer.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: It is raining. It doesn't count all the time.
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: And they say this in Belgium, they said, if you
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: especially about Brussels, the capital, they say, if it's not raining,
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: it's either just rained or.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: It's about to rain.
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: And I think in recent years we have to kind
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: of relook that because it's not been my experience the
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: last few summers. I feel like you either get a
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: hot July or hot August, but not both, but you
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: get some hot weather which has been quite nice. And
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: so our summers are primarily spent in the Ardenne region,
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: which is a very beautiful part of Belgium, and I
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: think often overlooked for travelers outside of Europe. So European
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: travelers they will go to that region. They love hiking
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: and on the Merged River, there's so much to do.
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: Something that I like to do is doing cycling along
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: the river. And you've got camp sites that you've got
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: peppered across the river, and you've also got the abbey's
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: where you still have the microbreweries and you have some
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: monks that are still producing that b and so you
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: can visit the abbey, you can have a camping trip,
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: you can get some exercise with the cycling, and it's
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: quite a robust, active vacation that you can have. So
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: that's what we spend a lot of our summer doing.
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: My boys then spend another ten days at Scout camp
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: and that's actually taken us across Belgium because it's especially
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: when they're in the younger ages, so the cub Scouts,
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: they will be in Bruges or in Hence or in
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: other small towns in Belgium, and that's got in us
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: to travel.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Actually, So when we've gone.
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: To Bruges, which is really a mussy little town it is,
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: they say, you know, it's got the little canals that
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: you have in Amsterdam, so taking little boats and doing
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: tours of the canal. Of course, there's chocolate to be
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: eats and lots of lace. Actually, that's what Bruges is
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: very well known. Kent is another small town like that,
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: but it's got.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: A more students feel. So if you.
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: Maybe travel on a budget, Hint is somewhere that you
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: could get very expensive things but also very cheap options
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: in terms of accommodation, in terms of things to do,
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: in terms of sights.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: But of course.
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: Belgium is known for its chocolates, it's beer, and it's
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: tinton and those are the things that you will see
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: in all the different parts of Belgium that you go to.
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: Even though it's a country that is very small country,
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: but you have three distinct languages in the country. You
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: have very different cultures also because you'll see in the
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: Wallonia region, which is the French speaking region, which is
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: in the arden.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: That I was speaking about earlier.
• 3:45
  Speaker 4: You will have, as I said, it's very beautiful in nature,
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: but it's French speaking and very different, whereas in the
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: Flemish speaking which is the language that's very close to
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: Dutch and even very similar to Afrikaans. It's funny because
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: my father's Afrikaans, my father in law and my father
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: in law speaks Flemish pactice.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: And they understand each other and they understand. So yes,
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: is that similar? Okay?
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: Even though you sometimes think can I understand? You know,
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: you can understand better than what you can actually speak.
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: But definitely written Flemish you can understand.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: To read, Okay.
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: So Flemish French is the third one German or Germany.
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: It's a very very small percentage in the east of
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: the country and mostly in rural, rural parts of Belgium,
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: but it is, it is a population, is the third
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: official language.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Okay.
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: Now let's talk about getting there the basics. Can you
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: flyind direct from Cape Toon to Brussels or does one
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: have to go to a via via somewhere else in Europe?
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: There are sometimes seasonal flights between South Africa and Belgium
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: because there is a very huge population of Belgians in
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: South Africa. Acly okay, I mean some years ago. The
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: figure that I had was something like twenty six thousand
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: Belgians at the time, and it's mainly Belgians that had
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: left Congo and then had come you know, they were
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: to African to go back to Belgium. And you know,
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: South Africa was a good common ground, okay to come.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: To that's interesting.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: Hence the appeal of the Taste of Belgium event happening
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: at the Residents this weekend, so you.
• 5:12
  Speaker 4: Feel exactly exactly, and of course the fantastic beer that
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: you get.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: In all the other treats.
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: So Belgium music country, as I said, of beer, and
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: they are one thousand, five hundred different beers that you
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: should have. So of course you can go to the
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: Stellar Artois Museum and have the stellar Atois experience, which
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: I think most people, if they know Belgian beer, they
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: think of Stellatore, but actually Belgium is really well known
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: for its microbreweries and its specialty beers. My favorite I'm
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: not about. I'm not really a beer drink, but I
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: love a beer called Crick and it's a it's a
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: cherry beer and it's just delicious.
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: I was going to say, I associate fruit beers with Belgium,
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: and I've never encountered the concept before going to a
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: Belgian event where somebody fell and they gave me I
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: think a pair favorite beer, yes, and so oft Is.
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: I mean, you can't have too many because it's just
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: very heavy, but it is delicious and you know you think,
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: oh it's sweet and it's not going to do.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: Anything that it goes to your head at some point
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: famous last words.
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: In fact, some beers you know, have a such a
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: high alcohol content like twenty seven twenty eight percent that.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: You think, oh, it's just a couple of beers that
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: I'm drinking, and then you know it very quickly can
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: go to your head. Okay, so you're not going to
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: drive after those.
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: On that note, public transport, if you're visiting as an
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: outsider without a car, is there public transport really available?
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: How do people get around?
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: I think public transport is readily available, but Brussels actually
• 6:36
  Speaker 4: I find competes to other European cities. People have cars
• 6:40
  Speaker 4: and people get around with their cause. Even though public
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: transport is very readily available in the capital, you can
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: get around in tram you can get around in very
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: expensive Belgian taxis, which are all Mercedes Benz.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: By the way, interestingly uber Is.
• 6:56
  Speaker 4: There is the Metro. But as I said, you know,
• 6:59
  Speaker 4: people do get around mostly in their cars, I find,
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: which is very different compared to other cities. In fact,
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: my brother in law works with mobility and so his
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: project that he's been doing is try to connect the
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: city a bit better in terms of people coming from
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: the metro and then linking to the other modes of
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: public transport in the city, so.
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: You're not going to see what you see just across
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: the road in Amsterdam not far away. Bicycles everywhere you
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: do see a lot of that.
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: I think there's really been a huge drive to do
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: a lot more on on.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Bicycle, especially in Brussels.
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: You also see that in Antwerp, which is the diamond
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: capital of the world.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: And I must say, if you are going to make
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: it to Antwerp, they have the world's best.
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: Chocolate museum and it is I visited it two years
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: ago for the first time, and because I've done a
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: lot of work in coco, having lived in Courtivois, which
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: is the world's number one coco producer, it was beautiful
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: in the way that they yes, Belgium is known for chocolate,
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: but they also assume that chocolate does not come from Belgium.
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: So they've refined the process of making chocolates, so taking
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: the raw beans and then the you know, turning it
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: into into finished products in the end. So they really
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: take you through that whole journey from being.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: To bar and what that means.
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: So it's a beautiful experience, and so I would really
• 8:15
  Speaker 4: there are others smaller museums in Brussels, in Hent, in Bruges,
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: because it's such a chocolate you know, obsessed country and
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: well known for its chocolate, but that particular one I
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: think is well worth visiting.
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: In unverb Okay, thanks for the tip chart. Thank you
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: writing in to say one of my favorite places to be.
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: It is so beautiful to ride your bike through Flanders,
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: is his comments. So there we go echoing that cycling
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: culture is part of part.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: Of the deal over there.
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: So you see it more in Flanders because you have
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: it's flatter, so it's like the Netherlands, and you see
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: it I think less in Wallonia, Okay.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: Now, Leon obviously an old country with a very long
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: and rich history and lots of medieval sites and I
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: think three thousand castles.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Somebody told me exactly. It's that it's the country in
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: the world with.
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: The highest number of castles, highest density of castles, and
• 9:03
  Speaker 4: so I find that very interesting because every small little
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: town has their little castle and their medieval castle, and
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: actually once a year the owners of the private owners
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: of those castles, they actually have to make the property
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: available for the public to seek, so it would be
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: on the equivalent of Heritage Day where they have to
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: make this publicly open.
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: It's part of owning that and part of the.
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: Heritine, so it's not lost to the public even though
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: it's in private hands.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: That's exactly exactly, Okay.
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: Just for anybody who's coming in midway to this conversation,
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: you recognize the voice, of course, it belongs to Leander Bassampierre,
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: previously part of the Cape Talk team and just returned
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: to South Africa after many years traveling the world. She
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: is married to a Belgian national. Her children are South
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: African Belgian citizens and they travel obviously very often to
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: Belgium to see friends and family and to visit homes.
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: So she's had a lot of experience of going there
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: as a South African visitor on a South African paspital,
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: although must probably by now a Belgian passport.
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: No, no, not only eighteen years married and still no
• 10:04
  Speaker 4: Belgian passport. But I have residents for Belgium, so it
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: is easy for me to travel. Okay, So you know, no,
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: I don't have to get a visa, but I do
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: have a residence card, so I can travel very easily
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: in and out of the country. Of course, Belgium is
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: in the Shngen country, so if you have a Shangen visa,
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: you can easily enter Belgium on that visa. If you
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: are applying for a Shangen visa, then you have and
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: Belgium is your first job.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: You have to go to the Belgian embassy. Okay, good
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: to apply.
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: For at the embassy itself.
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: No, they're the different processes that you have now. But
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: I think you know it's there are very many options
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: of going to Belgium. I said earlier that you know,
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: seasonally they sometimes have direct flights between Belgium and South Africa,
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: but all the big companies that fly into into Cape
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: Town they have flights. So we are going in a
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: month's time and we're taking Turkish airlines by Istamachol. I
• 10:57
  Speaker 4: found that that seemed to be the shortest leg over
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: four especially when you're traveling with kids. Yeah.
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: In factor, yeah, and the cost of flights Europing.
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: What it is exactly exactly, and so you know that
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: it depends when you buy. If you buying forty five
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: days minimum in advance, and all these great you know
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: banking apps now that you can buy it directly through
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: the bank and get the discounts. I'm taking advantage of
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: that because they really are very interesting and I'm not
• 11:23
  Speaker 4: being paid to say that. But there are many options now,
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: I think, and that's what's great for South Africans that
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: you don't have to think, oh, con travel because everything
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: is so expensively.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: Four thousand return ticket kind of thing.
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: You can if you do your homework, find something exactly,
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: a little bit exactly.
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: So we paid in the region of twelve thousand ran
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: for our flights for the end of the year, which
• 11:42
  Speaker 4: we obviously bought in advance and with you know points
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: and with and discounts, et cetera.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: But that is reasonable. It's very especially when you are
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: a family of five, so.
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: You considerma gosh, I can't have older kids to travel
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: with now. I can't imagine to get in the young days. Yeah,
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: I want to pause for a second and and talk
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: about some of these sort of historical sites to visit.
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: And obviously Brussels being the capital, I know they've got
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: the famous square that is one of the most famous
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: the ground.
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: Plus I think it's at com plus it's beautiful and
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: every second year they have what they call tappy de fleur,
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: so it's a carpet of flowers and it's so beautiful,
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: and so if you are planning a trip to Belgium
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: to try to do it around that time, it is
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: just incredible to see really beautiful. The square itself is
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: very interesting because you have all these gilded buildings around
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: you know from the former different trades that people had,
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: so you have the tailor's guild, and you have all
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: these the banking guild, and you have all these different buildings.
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: Belgium is also Brussels specifically is also known for its
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: Art Nouveau buildings, and so you can do a walking
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: tours that takes you around the square and gives you
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: very interesting perspective of what you see, so you're not
• 12:54
  Speaker 4: just going okay, com plus, okay.
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: What's next, beautiful bullding, but what is it exactly? And
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: then around.
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: So there are lots of restaurants obviously on the square,
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: like any of the squaes in Europe that they so expensive.
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: So I would suggest going you know, two or three
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: streets away and then finding the very traditional Brassri where
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: you have Mulfritz, which is the muscles that you absolutely
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: have to have. And fries and I must say, after
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: twenty years, I do have my fries with mayonnaise and
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: it's delicious.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: You finally knuckle down and given up on the tomato source.
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: I love it. Molfeet I know, one of the dishes
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: on the menu at the Taste of Belgium event this
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: coming weekend, by the way, So if you've never had it,
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: here's your opportunity to go and try something different. So good,
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: so good, it's so good. I've never been. But the
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: more I researched for this, secondly, and the more I'm
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: thinking that trip I was thinking of doing to Paris
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: next year, might have to do a side expedition into Belgium,
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: because of course it's right there.
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: It's right Sociality twenty yea by train, you know, you
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: can drive it.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: It's a lot longer to drive.
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: We drove it last last summer because we had our
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: nanny from Indiana, where we were previously, and she's like,
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: I really wanted we took her to Belgium for the
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: summer and she really only wanted to see the Eiffel Towers.
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: So we drove to Paris and it's actually a four
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: hour drive, it shows to a one hour twenty.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: Okay, so definitely something to consider now. Of course, the
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: other you've heard us mention Flanders several times, and for
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: many people that immediately sums up memories of wartime and
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: battle sites and cemeteries. And I'm mindful of the fact
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: that we're doing this interview on our Mistice Day, which
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: is the daymarking the signing of the armistice that ended
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: World War One this day in nineteen eighteen. So before
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: we talk about the battle sites, I thought, let's just
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: take a moment to reflect on that fact and to
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: remember the millions and millions of lives that were lost
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: in this part of.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: The world between the two World Wars.
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: And a beautiful way to do that is to listen
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: to the famous poem by John McCrae called in Flanders Fields,
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: and we're playing you a version here, read by the
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: late Sir John Gilbert.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: In Flanders Fields, the poppies blow between the crosses row
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: on row that mark our place, and in the sky
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: the larks still bravely singing fly scarce heard amid the
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: guns below. We are the dead. Short days ago we lived,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: felt dawn, saw sunset glow. Loved and were loved, And
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: now we lie in Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: with the foe to you from failing hands. We throw
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: the torch be yours to hold it high. If he
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: Though poppies grow in Flanders fields.
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: That boy still gives me goosebumps, all these years after
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: he left us. The poem, of course, written by Canadian
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: John McCrae, read there by the late said John gilgurd Lean.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: I mean, obviously many many sights of huge battles of
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: both World War One and World War too.
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: But not just the World Wars.
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: There's another very significant battle further back in history that
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: has its sights in Belgium.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: At the time.
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: But Waterloo is where Napoleon was famously defeated. And we
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: visited the battlefield and the museum that accompanies it with
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: the kids when they were quite young, and we visited
• 16:18
  Speaker 4: even when they were older, and they absolutely were intrigued
• 16:22
  Speaker 4: by it. It was really didactic and interesting for them
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: to see to experience part of his street. I mean,
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: they've very well traveled children, and they've seen lots of
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: historical monuments. But it was still very interesting for them
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: to see.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: So if you are going with your.
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: Kids, I would suggest that you that you do that
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: and it's a day trip from Brussels and if you
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: want to. And sometimes when we travel with the kids,
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: I'm sure you did. You did the same when your
• 16:45
  Speaker 4: kids were younger, but tried to find exciting things that
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: are not travel like museums and you know, but there's
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: a great water park and amusement park very close through
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: that battlefield, so we sometimes do both.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: And they've got.
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: The most amazing zoo actually in Belgium called Parids. It's
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: the most beautiful zoo in all of Belgium. And I'm
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: not a zoo person, but this particular one is done
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: so fantastically. We've been a few times and it's just
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: really something to put on the on the list of
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: things to see and do, especially if you're going with children.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, I mean that's a yeah.
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: There's only so much that that children can take of
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: monuments and battle sites and that before they lose focus.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: So that's a great idea to distract them. David calling
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: and asking is the atomium still there in Brussels? That's
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: ye's very futuristic sort of balls hanging on spikes. It
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: looks a little bit like a jump jack tell us
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: more exactly.
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: So it was, Yeah, it still is there and right
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: next to it actually, So what you can do. You
• 17:47
  Speaker 4: can get a ticket for both the Atomium and Mini Europe,
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: which is very interesting. So it's a you can it's
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: basically kind of a walking maze of of Europe and
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: all the different side that you see in Europe. And
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: it's a in a venue just next door. It's outside,
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: and so if you go to the Automya you can
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: do Mini Europe.
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: As well, okay, And it's just outside of Brussels.
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: You can take the Metro, you can take a taxi,
• 18:12
  Speaker 4: you can take the bus.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: So for those who have no idea what that is,
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: it's look, it's very hard to describe. It's a silver,
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: very modern looking building. My producers giving me the official
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: description is that it is a landmark modernist building constructed
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: as the centerpiece of the nineteen fifty eight Brussels World's Fair.
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: Sort of enormous, but you can actually you can see
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: beautiful views from inside, okay, So it's not just something
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: that you look at, but you can have lunches side
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: you can go inside exactly.
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: I'm glad you mentioned and you see it exactly.
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: I mean when you leave the airport in Brussels Javantine Airport.
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: You can actually see it from on the road from
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: the airport, but it is a little bit away outside
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: of the city.
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: Okay, somebody writing in too say, I can't believe you
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: haven't mentioned the famous statue of Monnequin. Course, of course
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: we were going to get there, and okay, so for
• 18:59
  Speaker 3: those who can't picture it, it's a statue of a
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: little boy having a wheel and I've ulterinately heard people
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: describe it as the biggest let down of their trip
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: and the most exciting thing to see.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: And every you can walk past there.
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: So it's just a flag homplas And you can walk
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: past there any time of the year in it can
• 19:17
  Speaker 4: be like so rainy and so cold, but there will
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: be crowds around this little character called mannequin piece. And
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: what's interesting I find is that depending on what day
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: of the year it is, he's dressed up, okay and so,
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: and they've marked you know, for example, they did eighteenth
• 19:35
  Speaker 4: of July Madiva's birthday a few years ago, a week
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: he was dressed with South African colors, and so I
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: think that that's quite interesting. So it depends what's happening
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: in the world, what's happening on that particular day.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: But he's got a whole wardrobe.
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: And apparently you can also visit the museum and see
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: the different wardrobes that Money and Piece has as well.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: Okay I haven't, but I believe you can.
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: Okay, So if you want to have the absolutely quintessential
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: Jian tourists experience, and you've you've got to go inside
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: the automium, You've got to go and visit Money in Peace,
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: whatever he is wearing that day. You've got to eat
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: some milfrite with a little side order of chocolate afterwards,
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: and mayonnaise is with the chips. Of course, you've got
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: to listen to some Sharque Brel in the bat or
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: so pick up a Smurfs or Tingin comic on the
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: way out. Is there anything we've left out, maybe a
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: lesser known attraction that you'd like to flag as a favorite.
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: Well, you know, as I said to you, for for
• 20:26
  Speaker 4: nature lovers, I like the parts outside of Brussels where
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: you can you can cycle, where the where you can
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: do lots of walks where you can visit the abbey's
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: outside of Brussels, and so instead of just doing the
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: museum tour of the stellatoa example, visiting an abbey and
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: you know, you you see a lot of they call
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: it Trappist beers, so it's like local Trappist monks that
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: have made it and one of the famous ones, and
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: you actually find that beer called Maritsu. It's the it's
• 20:54
  Speaker 4: actually the boarding school that my husband went to, and
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: they still do tours of.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: Of the abbey.
• 21:00
  Speaker 4: They it's still run as a boarding school. And I
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: find it really very beautiful that region. As I said,
• 21:06
  Speaker 4: going to Antwerp, going to Bruges, those you can do
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: in day trips, but it is worth spending a night
• 21:11
  Speaker 4: and just soaking up some of that.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: Culture.
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: Also summer when you have such long days and you
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: can be basically strolling the streets and the canals till
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: ten eleven o'clock at night, so you can, if you're
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: going in the summertime, really prolong your stay with that.
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: I feel like you've taken us there on a guided
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: tour already. Leander busselbires such a pleasure. First need to
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: have you back in the country, but thank you so
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: much for being our guide on one of the world
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: this afternoon.
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: You've done a fabulous job. It's an absolute pleasure.
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: Thank you for having me and for thinking about me
• 21:41
  Speaker 4: today to talk you through this experience.
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: It's lovely to see you again and all the best
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: for the settling back into life in Cape done.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: As she takes up her new job, Leah and just
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: appointed as the business editor for The Africa Reports and
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: we wish her well in that role. The last thing
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: to remind you is if you haven't got the way
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: with all to buy a ticket or the leave to
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: take a holiday to the you can get to have
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: a little mini experience right here in Capeton this coming
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: weekend because it is the annual Taste of Belgium festival.
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: It's happening at the Ambassador's residence in Newland's this weekend
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: and it is an opportunity to enjoy some of the
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: dishes Lean's mentioned. I know there will be Mulfret, they'll
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: be Carder Nard, there will be chocolates, of course, there
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: will be beers for you to taste. There's live music, waffles.
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: We didn't mention another big delicacy you have to try.
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: And there's also a wonderful market of artisanal crafts, people
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: with some kind of connections to the Belgian community who
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: will be selling their wears, so lots of things to
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: go and taste. They sent me a sneak taster of
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: the bisc Off cheesecake. Oh my word, if you are going,
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: do not miss that stall is all I can say.
• 22:41
  Speaker 3: Diets be damned, it's worth cheating for that. Just a
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: heads up that it is on Saturday. Gates open at
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: ten o'clock and we advise you to go early because it.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: Gets very, very busy. We know this from previous years.
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: Entrance is free. You can park at a Fernwood estate
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: or at the Stone Cottages near Kirstenbosch, and a free
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: shuttle service that will drop you right at the gate
• 23:02
  Speaker 3: to go and enjoy the event and of course take
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: you back to your car at the end. So do
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: you go and enjoy taste of Belgium this coming Saturday.