How Well Do You Know Your Neighbors?
I just hope there's no argument over property lines.
Howdy! It’s Joey, back with more Fun Fact Friyay. We’re getting geographical with this one. I hope you can fold a paper map better than I can.
With a total of 39, Belgium has the most distinct land borders with other countries.
One of my most memorable European meal experiences came at Maison Antoine in Brussels, Belgium. The logo is a conic shaped serving of fries with ketchup hair and a winking face. Already, I’m sold.
I had heard Maison Antoine serves up a mean mitraillette. That’s a sandwich served in a fresh, toasted baguette, smothered with fried meat and ample amounts of sauce, and then topped with French fries.
Sure, you can add vegetables to try and balance things out, but we’re going for the classic overindulgence here.
Maison Antoine is a takeaway spot. You stand in line, get up to the counter, hang out while they make your food, grab it, and see near-immediate improvement in your life.
Only while I was in line, it started pouring rain. The mass of 75 or so waiting people scrambled to get under the tiniest awning, hoping that would protect us from the rain that was now attacking us from 360 degrees.
It did not.
But what a charming time, shivering and feeling your teeth chattering while you’re bonding with your fellow travelers! And you better believe the lead-up to ordering the mitraillette made it taste all the better when I finally sunk my teeth into it.
Between mitraillettes, waffles, chocolate, fries, and beers, I toured quite a bit of the Belgian cuisine during my visit. What I did not do was go to all 39 parts of Belgium where it touches another country.
Belgium holds the distinction of the most distinct land borders. These are separate geographic boundaries that a country shares with its neighbors. A single country could have multiple land borders with a neighbor thanks to enclaves, exclaves, disconnected regions, or any other number of weird topographical reasons.
Belgium is at the top of the list largely due to its relationship with the Netherlands. There’s a Flemish municipality of Belgium called Baarle-Hertog, and it’s got a bevy of complicated borders with Baarle-Nassau in the Netherlands.
During the medieval days, this region of the world underwent several different treaties, land swaps, sales, and other agreements that exchanged hands of who actually controlled the land.
As a result, Baarle-Hertog is made up of 26 separate parcels of land. Four of these are tied to other Belgian municipalities. The other 22 are Belgian exclaves within the Netherlands. Some of these are very tiny; four of the borders are 850 feet or smaller.
Still, we’re quite literally going for quantity over quality here. And Belgium and the Netherlands have 31 distinct land borders between them.
Belgium also has another six land borders with Germany, and single instances of land borders with France and Luxembourg.
Add ‘em all up and you get a grand total of 39.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Netherlands is second with 32 land borders (if you’re just counting the country), or 33 if you count the entire kingdom, which includes Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and the Caribbean Netherlands.
So, let Belgium be some good inspiration to say hello to your fellow human. Or, at the very least, eat some frites. They’re delicious.