B elgium is quite a surprising country, small in size at about 30.500 km2, but littered with golf courses. Without talking about neither its scenery, which is rarely spectacular nor its people, who are pleasantly average west Europeans with an above average taste for beer and fried potatoes, the surprise stems from its existence and that there is a Kingdom of Belgium at all.

It was borne of a revolution within the larger Kingdom of the Netherlands and it had to import a King from Germany (Leopold I 1831-1865) since it had no royalty of its own. It brought together two quite dissimilar groups with different languages and has lived through decades of tension and rivalry between them, divided permanently now into two regions with a special status for the capital Brussels. Belgium has surprisingly survived 175 years.

Grande Place, Brussels

The Low Countries comprising Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg have a more chequered history than almost any other European area of similar size. They have been held by the Burgundians, Spaniards, Austrians and Frenchmen. They have been fought over by Protestants and Catholics, revolutionaries and imperialists. Belgium in particular has an unhappy history as the ground where other nations station their battles. The last three conflicts in this ‘cockpit’ of Europe were the Waterloo campaign when British and Prussians fought the French, the Muddy Trench warfare of the First World War when the British and the French fought with the Belgians against Germany and the Battle of the Bulge in the second word war when Americans and British fought the Germans.

Diplomats and golf have always gone hand-in-hand or should it be club-in-hand and with the European Union headquarters in Brussels one can’t but help wondering whether these headquarters were chosen for its convenience to reach the abundance of golf courses available.

Royal Zoute Golf Club, Knokke near Bruges

The Royal Golf Club (Ravenstein)

The Royal Golf Club of Belgium (Ravenstein)

A touring golf holiday is a delightful experience in Belgium, many of the popular clubs have had royalty thrashing around on their fairways and bear the prefix “Royal” to prove it.

Belgian chocolates - futile to resist them

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