Belgium

A small Central European country, the middle bit of the Benelux states, with the Netherlands bordering to the north and Luxembourg to the south-east (plus France to the south and Germany to the east).

In dark-tourism terms, Belgium has quite a lot to offer, especially with regard to the First World War. Ypres has become almost synonymous with the senseless tragedy that was the “war to end all wars”, and today’s memorial sites and museums bear testimony to the slaughter back then. But there are also less well-known WW1 sites, such as Yser.

Like its neighbours, Belgium was then overrun by Germany in WWII, and the Nazi occupiers left their mark – in the form of Breendonk and Kazerne Dossin, which played a part as transit camps in the Holocaust and are now memorial sites.

These are the places given their own chapters on this website:

- Ypres Salient WW1 sites

(Ypres with the Menin Gate and the In Flanders Fields Museum, Tyne Cot,

Passchendaele 1917 Museum, Hooge Crater Museum, Sanctuary Wood and Hill 62,

Hill 60, Bayernwald)

- Yser Tower & Museum

- Fort Breendonk

- Kazerne Dossin, Mechelen

As a tourist destination in general, Belgium is notoriously and unjustly underrated … especially for the British the country somehow acquired the reputation of the least worthy tourist place in Europe – which is strange, as it offers two of Britain's best-loved commodities in unparalleled quality: beer and chips (as in 'pommes frites', "Frieten" in Flemish – it was here that they were invented, and they're thus grossly misnamed "French" fries in the USA and elsewhere – and nowhere else are they made so well).

Belgium is also a bit of a whipping boy for its grand southern neighbour France (often the prototypical butt of jokes in ways similar to the Irish for Brits), and, if to a somewhat lesser degree, for the Netherlands too. Personally, I feel sorry for Belgium. It doesn't really deserve such a rough deal on the reputation front – although it doesn't help that if the country gets in the international (negative) headlines these regularly involve child abuse, right-wingers, a language war and/or general political gridlock … oh, and Brussels, of course, the place all Euro-sceptics point an accusing finger at.

But I quite like Belgium – not just as a dark-tourism destination, but also e.g. in culinary respects, in which it is world class. Good food and drink is very important to Belgians in general, so even in small towns you won’t have trouble finding a good meal; and the rightly fabled Belgian beer (especially the Trappist and Abbey ones) is also never far away. Belgium has some immensely pretty cities, of which Bruges (Brugge) and Ghent (Gent) are the best known, but e.g. Antwerp is also a gem (pun intended – it’s also the world’s No. 1 diamond cutting and trade centre). And while the northern plains may seem a bit bland, the south has some splendid scenery, in particular the Ardennes.