Former capital of the Counts of Hainaut, chief town of the province and European Capital of Culture 2015, Mons is a charming little town that is well worth a weekend…
Former capital of the Counts of Hainaut, chief town of the province and European Capital of Culture 2015, Mons is a charming little town that is well worth a weekend…
Former capital of the Counts of Hainaut, chief town of the province and European Capital of Culture 2015, Mons is a charming little town that is well worth a weekend trip. As a resident of Mons, I had to share my tips for a nice weekend in our region with you. Am I being objective? Probably not. But have seventeen years in Mons taught me a thing or two? Absolutely.
I don't typically write about Belgium, and it is a shame, to be honest. If I may say so myself, my (tiny) country has a lot to offer, and I'm not just talking about chips, chocolate, and beer (though they are ok, I guess). Take those random castles you've never heard of, for example.
While my great-uncle Raymond eventually grew up to be a functional adult, no one who actually knew him would say that I'm overstating it if I say that as a kid, he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed. This was due partly to the fact that he had been extremely sheltered as a child because he was the only boy in a family that already counted two very strong-willed girls, partly because we can't all win the common sense lottery.
We used to go to the seaside by train. It was odd, now that I come to think of it, as in the early nineties, most families had a car. Still, we went to the seaside by train. Maybe it was a remnant of the first paid leaves for which the working class had gone on strike in the sixties when having a private vehicle was just not possible for everyone yet. It’s funny how we just mimic the previous generation’s ways without much questioning.
Belgium has its lot of oddities, but I had never realized that military surpluses might be one of them until I had a conversation with my friend Gareth who claimed never to have seen such a thing in Wales. That’s when I started to think that maybe, such stores aren’t as popular in other countries as they are in mine.
