BAARLE-NASSAU

Know nothing about it? Do not even know where it is? No problem, it is not that important, it is more about the fun! It is about enclaves and exclaves: the concepts are not so complex in themselfes - but its praticalities always seem funny and odd. Notice for instance another case: Ras al-Kaimah Emirate has a round enclave inside an Oman territory, which is itself a round enclave of Ras al-Kaimah.
I kown about Baarle-Nassau since the winter of 1982, when I took a trip from my Luxembourg base to the Netherlands. After visiting the mushroom-like building of the science and technology Evoluon museum in Eindhoven, raised to celebrate the 75th aniversary of Phillips, a careful looking on a small entry of my travel guide led me to Baarle-Nassau.
Rights, claims and arrangements,in short History as it happens, are responsible for the strange situation. When Belgium separated from the Netherlands in 1830 the odd forms of "borders" simply followed the status quo dating back to XII century feudal times, when the Duke of Brabant and the Count of Holland were having conflicts about their respective possessions. We can now take advantage of such conflicts by seeing houses which are half in each country, passing to Belgium though an enclave to go to a sub-enclave of the Netherlands, having a drink - if my memory is still reliable! -in an "international" coffee shop which has a table with half of it in each country and other subtilities of the kind. Enjoy your drink and pay it now in euros, while earlier you could be tough with the owner about how to pay: dutch guilders or belgian francs.

BRUSSELS

I am now in Brussels. Having worked for the European Parliament for twenty years till my retirement, I keep my appartment and have resident status. Travelling between Brussels and Lisbon looks to me more as a shuttle than a standard flight.
I know Brussels since 1970. That year I transited here in-between a flight from Lisbon and a train to Cologne, where I had to pick my new car, later to be sent to Angola. It was a Summer Sunday and, near to the Grand Place, I watched on a TV café the second half of the Football World Cup (in Mexico); Brazil won superbly, to my enjoyment (almost every portuguese is a Brazil fan, if the opponent is not Portugal!).
Later I was a regular of the Grand Place every time I came to Brussels. I keep the memory of the its traffic changes: in 1981 the Grand Place was (still, in today's understanding) a big parking place; later the cars could come in and tour it, but no more parking; and later no more cars, just people.
Moving to Brussels, I had for some months a small apartment very near to the Grand Place, so I was quite acquainted with the new "just people" environment. Then, one Winter Sunday I woke up very early, went to the Grand Place and saw it as never more: there was no one but me in the profound beauty of that grey and half-foggy morning. Guess very few have seen it such a way! Later the Grand-Place was approved as a World Heritage site...