I remember visiting the European institution in Bruxelles and being a bit overwhelmed by how convoluted it all seemed. I asked one of our guides, who was from Bruxelles and his answer was as débonnaire as it was threatening : “Maybe… It’s less complicated than the Belgian ones anyway.”
My original plan: hike all the way back to the PREVIOUS bus stop What actually happened: walk along the road for about thirty seconds, hear a noise behind me, turn around, see bus approaching at 100kmh, wave like an absolute maniac, bus stops, one very grateful Tim, one visibly unimpressed bus driver
@@flitsertheo the first one spoke German fairly natively, the second one probably too... :D their routes are crossing borders, they're probably fluent enough in everything that's spoken.
Talk about confused. I left the UK in 2008 to move to Belgium, not far from Malmedy near a small town called Trois Ponts. My wife had a Fiat Panda, and I needed a spare part. The nearest Fiat dealer was in Malmedy. So I brushed up my best French and went to the Fiat parts centre and asked "Avez-vous un capteur d'arbre à cames pour une Fiat Panda 2005 ?" only to hear the lady on the front desk ask the parts manager "Hans, haben wir einen Nockenwellensensor für einen Fiat Panda 2005?"....
In case someone wants to know: The "controversial" referendum took place under a de facto belgian military occupation. It is described by some people as an almost colonial regime - the Belgians had some experience with colonial rule from their Congo colony [insert "Heart of Darkness" here]. For the "referendum", people had to go to a public office and write their name and "Yes" or "No" very visibly on a list. It was understood that everyone who was voting against remaining with Belgium would not receive any more food stamps. Unsurprisingly, the result was 33,726 votes for and 271 votes against the annexation...
Exactly. While it's not very surprising that it went down like this given the circumstances after WW2, the normal everyday people living in this region were victims of the crazy warfare themselves obviously. Like Tim pointed out, the Germans living there were being conscripted by force as well. What a an interesting region! I genuinely wonder if the German-speaking people living in this region would support becoming a part of Germany nowadays.
@@MrSam1er The Austrian Anschluss referendum might have been the most notorious before the Russian ones, but I think it may have been the French who invented the modern art of holding plebiscites to legitimize occupation and annexation of territories after the French Revolution in Belgium and Germany. They did it again in 1860 to annex Nice and Savoy under heavy French military presence.
I would describe the first 100yr of flanders in Belgium as almost collonial.. all who wanted some power or even simple high school education had to learn the french from the minority of the people..
Probably because the highway to France passes over/trough it 😂 I still remember passing through there on successive holidays and monitoring progress in extending that highway. We used to have lunch on the building site(s). It helps having a builder dad 😂
Thanks for making this great video. I kind of suspected this topic might come one day. I am a German and this place means quite a lot to me. The Belgian - German history is quite interesting, and I like that its the only area where i can order BELGIAN FRIES in German (Mitraillette, is crazy, try it if you havent yet). But its important to me on a personal level because I met my Belgian girlfriend here on Signal de Botrange.
Oh you were so close! I wish I could have met you and thanked you in person for all your videos. I hope you at least saw the Moresnet Viaduct. Hills, trains and bridges is something of your speciality. And I really do hope you fully utilize the 9 Euro ticket of Germany in the meantime. Cheers!
Who says Belgium is boring? What is possibly the world’s flattest mountain is there and you can get a bus to the top, roadworks notwithstanding. Magnificent.
I went there this winter, realy beatifull, I had a very good busconnection up and down the baraque michel, I came in by train from verviers and took a bus that headed straigt up. I went there in winter so I had very beautifull views off the landscapes covered with snow. I really sugest a visit to everyone, and there are a lot of nice places near their to hike! Greetings from a Belgian student
Unfortunately you didn't see much of the Hohe Venn, which is very unique and exciting. The straight ways are extremely boring, but for example there is a path leading from Baraque Michel in some hours back to Eupen along the Hill. In general the Venn can be dangerous and every year people get lost there...
Allow me to add some additions to your video: The traditional prononciation of the name Eupen is closer how the train people said it: 'øːpən, in the regional dialects the end -n is dropped. The dialect of Eupen (Eupener Platt) is infact closer to Dutch than (High) German. Two basic examples in which the High German consonant shift (t > ts/z, k > ch) has not been implemented in the dialect of Eupen: 1. "Twei" = two (Dutch: twee, German: Zwei) and 2. "Make" (long a not like in English) = to make (Dutch: maken, German: machen) The dialect of the villages only a few miles on the eastside like Walhorn, Raeren, Eynatten and Hauset is closer to High German: "Zwei" and "Mache". However (High) German influence (church, administration,...) is strong for centuries in Eupen even before the Prussian time. It seems the so called Eupener Platt is mostly spoken by the elderly nowadays. This is one of the reasons the artificial High German prononciation (ˈɔʏpən) has got the upperhand now (also by the local media). Eupen has also a French name: Néau and is still used in the neighboring Walloon villages with only very slightly differences in prononciation. It is very surprising that the French name has no official status and regional use in francophile Belgium. The region Eupen-Malmedy is in 1920 transferred to Belgium (Threaty of Versailles). However German (Lëtzebuergesch) was also spoken before 1920 in other Belgium villages: Beho (= Bochholz, Bokels - North of Bastogne/Bastnach/Bastenaken) and the Land of Arlon (= Arelerland). Those villages are heavily frenchified nowadays. The French period was very very brief like after the French Revolution. Before it belongs of course to the Principality of Stavelot-Malmedy (Holy Roman Empire). Malmedy is however Walloon for ages. During the 19 and 20 century Walloon was greatly exchanged for the French standard language by the Walloon people (supported by the school system and the media). Walloon and French are very strong related (Gallo-Romance languages) like Dutch and German (West Germanic languages). Not the whole Canton of Malmedy is French speaking (or Walloon speaking) like shown in the video, only the municipalities Malmedy and Waimes are Walloon. In the year 1977 the German speaking municipalities Bütgenbach and Büllingen left this canton. Malmedy and Waimes are called "Malemdər" ans "Weims" by the German speaking neighbours and Bütgenbach and Büllingen have Walloon expressions: "Bût'ba" and "Bolindje" or "Bullange" in French. The "French" name Botrange (Walloon Bôdrindje) is of Germanic origin: *Baldringen and means "at the people of Balthahari". The Germanic suffix -ingen is romanized in -ange like Büllingen = Bullange and another 100 examples elsewere. The place is not far from the Germanic-Romance language border. It seems this Germanic origin is forgotten by the German speaking neighbours.
I went there in the Summer of 2021 and it's one of the most beautiful places for nature sight seeing in Belgium with the Kalmthoutse Heide being a close second. Just the fact that it's so open and wide gives you such a feeling of freedom, incredibly amazing, highly recommend visiting. Thank you for covering this place in a video! :)
For me, this channel is the best travel vlog channel on youtube. No drama, no bullscrap, no cringe scene, and no crappy product placement. Just travel and history, as simple as that.
I can’t remember if you’ve already done a video on it, but there are enclosed parts in Noord Brabant (the Netherlands) that are actually Belgium, and if I’m not mistaken the other way around too. A while back, like maybe 3-4 years ago, some of the lands swapped ownership. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baarle The Dutch page has a better map! nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baarle It’s not too uncommon with all the border shifts, but 20 km south of where I live, a Dutch town Kerkrade has a street that’s Dutch on one side, and German on the other: Neustraße.
Maybe you would like to do the highest mountains of evvery german state? There are some pretty interesting ones. The lowest is 32,5 m high in Bremen and the highest is the Zugspitze with 2962 m in Bavaria. The Brocken (Saxony-Anhalt) is very famous for its role during the cold war, as a place for witches' dancing in Goethe's "Faust" and also has a very nice steam railway going up. You can also climb up, but it takes quite a while. Love your content!
3:35: "It's pretty flat" say someone wearing a, wait for it, ... ... flat cap. Okay, this is what is called a "Flachwitz" in my native German, literally a "flat joke". I'll get my coat now, and flat cap.
Good video. :) I’m actually from Eupen. Kinda missed an opportunity to talk about the natural park of the „Hohes Venn“ as it’s a pretty special ecosystem that is also under threat from climate change and drying out.
If it's a view you want over Belgium, Netherlands and Germany I recommend going to the top of the 1906 Wilhelmina tower in Valkenburg and the mines are creepy but fascinating too.
Eupen, Malmédy and Sankt Vith were part of the Austrian Netherlands, before Belgium became an independent state. In the French period (1794 till 1815) these areas were part of the Departement de l’ Ourthe (later Province de Liège). In fact Sankt Vith belonged to the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg. Stavelot Malmedy was a religious domain governed by an abbey. Only at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 these parts were given to Prussia, although Malmedy was and is still French speaking. So the claims of Belgium on this area at the treaty of Versailles (1919) had indeed historical grounds.
When i read the title i was like "What? Germany gave Belgium the Zugspitze? When did this happen?". And then i realized that you are talking about the highest mountain of Belgium and not the highest mountain of Germany xD
Tim, there's another possible topic for you: In Carinthia (Austria) there's a dispute going on since the end of WW1 if (and if so, which) town name signs need to be bilingual. Apart from vandalism, signs going missing or getting magically replaced during the night, this dispute had some hilarious lawsuits. For example: A lawyer refused to pay a speeding ticket because a town sign was not bilingual, the speed limit is tied to the proper town signs. But because the sign was not bilingual as required by the Austrian constitution, the sign was invalid, therefore the speed limit was not in effect, therefore the speeding ticket is not valid. So if the town wants to enforce the speed limit (and other restrictions required by law within town limits), the town must put up bilingual signs. From what i dimly remember, the proper signage was then put up, and promptly stolen or vandalized by people who refuse to accept bilingual signs. This all ties in with promises made by politicians in the 1920 Carinthian plebiscite, which created as much problems as it solved. To be fair, those were new, exciting problems, designed to be NOT solved by the next few dozen generations. If you think that a spanish town ending on the wrong side of the border is petty, those spaniards have nothing, NOTHING on us carinthians. We all agree that the towns ended (mostly) on the correct side, we just can't agree on what the town names actually are. www.google.de/search?q=carinthia+bilingual+sign+dispute There's also a somewhat lengthy german-language Wikipedia article: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ortstafelstreit en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1920_Carinthian_plebiscite
>promptly stolen or vandalized by people who refuse to accept -bilingual signs.- refuse to accept speeding tickets they get "vandalized" (stolen) because they're a fun home decoration for students
I’ve lived in Brussels for 32 years and I’ve never been there, although I’ve spent many a long weekend in charming Malmédy. I’m so glad you’ve done that for me now! 😅
I used to live near the Dutch summit Vaalserberg and Signal de Botrange is just a short car ride away. I've been there several times. The Hautes Fagnes (High Fens) around it are pretty good as well, if you like raised bogs and its plant life.
If you think that this Malmedy speaking French is weird, just check the maps of the Province of Liège since year 1000. It has been Spanish, part of Burgundy, Austrian, German, French, it has been a prince-bishopy and a constellation of small patches of Duchy of Limburg, Luxemburg, Maastricht and a lot more. I'm from that area and doing genealogy research is amazing. You get French revolution calendars, Holy German Empire in gothic characters but written in French, lots of Dutch... There are a lot of nice places around. It's pretty close to Spa, the city that gave its name to the spa, and also famous for its awesome race circuit. Stavelot, Malmedy, ...
Did all three summits in one day, on a motorcycle expedition a year ago. Tough job for man and machine. Three countries and their highest peaks. Unforgettable. 🤪
Potentially interesting fact: former Australian Finance Minister, Mathias Cormann, now Secretary-General of OECD, is from that little German speaking part of Belgium.
A little fact check here: You were not on the highest point in the Netherlands. But to get there, you have to land on the shortest runway in the world, so two boxes you can tick off
I was there the day before you! Well, at least I tried to go there on my bike but the closed road kept me from it. And maybe it’s pretty flat for most countries, my Dutch legs are used to the pancake I live on. Nice to see this video, now I know I was at least at the previous highest point of Belgium, thank you!
I've been up there on a hike from Malmedy to Eupen.Quite wild up there and I'd imagine people have frozen to death there in the winter.As I recall the buses in the German speaking area are run by TEC the French area public transport operator rather than the linguistically closer Flemish De Lyn.Malmedy seemed to be totally French speaking and most people couldn't speak Dutch although my Dutch comes via Afrikaans so maybe that was the problem?However it works in the Netherlands.After a search they found someone who spoke English and I had my hotel for the night!
People get lost up there pretty much every year. There was a guy once who froze to death a few meters next to the street after getting lost in the frozen swamps.
Tim Traveller has provided pointedly purposeful pertinent pedantic profiles pertaining to the highest points of the low countries, well done! But it begs the question: what are the low points of the high countries?
It's great to hike over the Haute Fagnes. I hiked there during peak winter and the experience was really cool (no pun intended). I will strongly recommend to hike from Signal de Botrange (or Eupen) to Monschau in Germany.
Hey Tim, would you ever make a video on the Oostvaardersplassen (A Dutch nature reserve that was supposed to be an industrial zone). It has some unique history, interesting politics and of course: trains.
I always love your videos. But can we have a list of what songs you're playing in the background? I recognised Baba Yetu, I am sure I recognise the first one but couldn't work it out...
I don't know if it's a universal definition, but in Belgian schools we learn that something is mountain if it's taller than 700m. So that would mean we're just shy of having one real mountain, so we joke that because of the tower we do have one mountain. Yes it's stupid, but it's just fun to climb the stairs and pretend. The surroundings are genuinely great to hike though. Also, you can't climb the big tower because that one isn't built for tourists, it's like a watchtower to look out for bushfires (it can be very dry there in summer).
Did you know that the 3-countries borderpoint (B-NL-D) once was a 4-countries borderpoint ? The village of Kelmis once had a zinc mine, which was claimed by the 3 countries, and, thus, became independent. It was called "Neutral Moresnet". It was not to far from where you were....
Tbf even the people of Eupen (German-speaking) and Malmedy (French-speaking) would pronounce it "wrong" according to the other, so heck knows how you're supposed to say it in English. I'd cut your history teacher some slack on this one!
you are lucky its usually not allowed to have passengers leave the vehicle at non stop places due the height of the bus, someone falls = lawsuit,... he was kind and friendly and tried to get you as close as possible i guess.
Thank you Tim for bringing us to the highest moutains, it is so exciting. Please also, do you have a picture of the Queen in your wallet? please please please. Thank you. edit: you are one the video maker that I will not miss any video. You are always producing adorable content.
I drove through the German-speaking area just 2-3 weeks ago along the motorway. What I noticed was the bilingual French-German road signs where someone had painted out the French. Why have it in French at all? I wondered. Perhaps because if anyone tampered with the French-Flemish settlement, eg by having road signs in Wallonia that weren't in French, then some area in Flanders might demand French-only signs, and all hell would break loose!
Another dangerous mountain climbing expedition, Tim? You narrowly survived that climb in the Netherlands.
2 climbs. He also climbed to the highest point of Urk, a staggering 7 meters, remember?
I'd like to see Tim take on the dizzying heights of Møllehøj in Denmark but I fear for his life.
@Mark Vivas Yeah, he had even called a number of friends to do a group climb. His motivational speach at the start of the climb is really inspiring.
And again without supplemental oxygen! The Sherpas seem to have prepared the route beforehand, of course, but still another 8m peak checked off.
@@jacksons1010 LOL
As a Belgian, I love how the video's about Belgium are always the most confusing :)
You can make anything confusing by trying it to seem logical...
I remember visiting the European institution in Bruxelles and being a bit overwhelmed by how convoluted it all seemed. I asked one of our guides, who was from Bruxelles and his answer was as débonnaire as it was threatening : “Maybe… It’s less complicated than the Belgian ones anyway.”
I'm sure the Belgians do that on purpose. Which purpose remains to be decided, mind.
People often exaggerate the situation on youtube in order to be "entertaining".
🤣😂
You left out the most interesting question:
If you needed to ask bus driver for an unplanned stop to get off... how did you manage to go BACK?
waved the bus, presumably
Edit: wrong wave. very wrong wave
My original plan: hike all the way back to the PREVIOUS bus stop
What actually happened: walk along the road for about thirty seconds, hear a noise behind me, turn around, see bus approaching at 100kmh, wave like an absolute maniac, bus stops, one very grateful Tim, one visibly unimpressed bus driver
@@TheTimTraveller NO! You did not raise your right arm, did you?
@@dutchman7623 That would have been a very bad mistake with a French speaking driver.
@@flitsertheo the first one spoke German fairly natively, the second one probably too... :D their routes are crossing borders, they're probably fluent enough in everything that's spoken.
Talk about confused. I left the UK in 2008 to move to Belgium, not far from Malmedy near a small town called Trois Ponts. My wife had a Fiat Panda, and I needed a spare part. The nearest Fiat dealer was in Malmedy. So I brushed up my best French and went to the Fiat parts centre and asked "Avez-vous un capteur d'arbre à cames pour une Fiat Panda 2005 ?" only to hear the lady on the front desk ask the parts manager "Hans, haben wir einen Nockenwellensensor für einen Fiat Panda 2005?"....
I always enjoy the piano music, especially this edition's Baba Yetu (Civ 4) at 3:58. Nice adaptation and nice reference!
In case someone wants to know: The "controversial" referendum took place under a de facto belgian military occupation. It is described by some people as an almost colonial regime - the Belgians had some experience with colonial rule from their Congo colony [insert "Heart of Darkness" here]. For the "referendum", people had to go to a public office and write their name and "Yes" or "No" very visibly on a list. It was understood that everyone who was voting against remaining with Belgium would not receive any more food stamps. Unsurprisingly, the result was 33,726 votes for and 271 votes against the annexation...
Hmm, yes, this method of referendum is known today as a "russian referendum", but it has a long and rich history !
Exactly. While it's not very surprising that it went down like this given the circumstances after WW2, the normal everyday people living in this region were victims of the crazy warfare themselves obviously. Like Tim pointed out, the Germans living there were being conscripted by force as well. What a an interesting region! I genuinely wonder if the German-speaking people living in this region would support becoming a part of Germany nowadays.
@@MrSam1er The Austrian Anschluss referendum might have been the most notorious before the Russian ones, but I think it may have been the French who invented the modern art of holding plebiscites to legitimize occupation and annexation of territories after the French Revolution in Belgium and Germany. They did it again in 1860 to annex Nice and Savoy under heavy French military presence.
I would describe the first 100yr of flanders in Belgium as almost collonial.. all who wanted some power or even simple high school education had to learn the french from the minority of the people..
@@JeroenJA it was the same for the Walloons. That's why we lost our language.
Ive always been told the highest point in Belgium was the Baraque Friture at 652 meters. I cant believe Ive been lied to all this time.
Baraque Friture?
@@zembkabecker6033 indeed 😁😇
@@zembkabecker6033 Telling us you're not Belgian without telling us you're not Belgian.
Probably because the highway to France passes over/trough it 😂
I still remember passing through there on successive holidays and monitoring progress in extending that highway. We used to have lunch on the building site(s). It helps having a builder dad 😂
Same!
Loves the piano renderation of Baba Yetu during the map sequence. Brilliant stuff.
As a Belgian, it's lovely to have my vague areas of knowledge filled in by a UK citizen living in France :)
Love the Orff btw, it was very fitting!
Merci und danke aus Eupen! Tim, tes vidéos sind immer ein Vergnügen à regarder!! 🙏🙏🙏❤️
2:22 Nice piano cover of Baba Yetu!
I always look forward to your fun, quirky, and informative videos. Thanks for taking us on another adventure, hello (et bonjour!) from Canada!
Thanks for making this great video. I kind of suspected this topic might come one day. I am a German and this place means quite a lot to me. The Belgian - German history is quite interesting, and I like that its the only area where i can order BELGIAN FRIES in German (Mitraillette, is crazy, try it if you havent yet). But its important to me on a personal level because I met my Belgian girlfriend here on Signal de Botrange.
Welche Sauce?
Thank you for making me hungry again as I'm lying in my bed at 3:40h, you Fiesling, haha.
Congratulations! An ideal meeting place.
@@TheDerwish Brazil! XD
Oh you were so close! I wish I could have met you and thanked you in person for all your videos.
I hope you at least saw the Moresnet Viaduct. Hills, trains and bridges is something of your speciality. And I really do hope you fully utilize the 9 Euro ticket of Germany in the meantime.
Cheers!
Who says Belgium is boring? What is possibly the world’s flattest mountain is there and you can get a bus to the top, roadworks notwithstanding. Magnificent.
How can a country which went 548 days without a government be boring?
Hallo from Germany! Your Videos are always a pleasure - Edutainment at it's best!
I love how often i see places i frequently visit on your channel and still learn new stuff.
Mais oui! Ich lerne etwa neuses mit elke nieuwe video!
I went there this winter, realy beatifull, I had a very good busconnection up and down the baraque michel, I came in by train from verviers and took a bus that headed straigt up. I went there in winter so I had very beautifull views off the landscapes covered with snow. I really sugest a visit to everyone, and there are a lot of nice places near their to hike!
Greetings from a Belgian student
The only channel I actually search for if it’s not recommended!
Unfortunately you didn't see much of the Hohe Venn, which is very unique and exciting. The straight ways are extremely boring, but for example there is a path leading from Baraque Michel in some hours back to Eupen along the Hill.
In general the Venn can be dangerous and every year people get lost there...
Is a map of the Venn region just two big circles with a bit in the middle where they join?
You mountaineering master! You climbed those stairs like a champ! Bravo!
Allow me to add some additions to your video:
The traditional prononciation of the name Eupen is closer how the train people said it: 'øːpən, in the regional dialects the end -n is dropped.
The dialect of Eupen (Eupener Platt) is infact closer to Dutch than (High) German. Two basic examples in which the High German consonant shift (t > ts/z, k > ch) has not been implemented in the dialect of Eupen: 1. "Twei" = two (Dutch: twee, German: Zwei) and 2. "Make" (long a not like in English) = to make (Dutch: maken, German: machen)
The dialect of the villages only a few miles on the eastside like Walhorn, Raeren, Eynatten and Hauset is closer to High German: "Zwei" and "Mache".
However (High) German influence (church, administration,...) is strong for centuries in Eupen even before the Prussian time. It seems the so called Eupener Platt is mostly spoken by the elderly nowadays. This is one of the reasons the artificial High German prononciation (ˈɔʏpən) has got the upperhand now (also by the local media).
Eupen has also a French name: Néau and is still used in the neighboring Walloon villages with only very slightly differences in prononciation.
It is very surprising that the French name has no official status and regional use in francophile Belgium.
The region Eupen-Malmedy is in 1920 transferred to Belgium (Threaty of Versailles). However German (Lëtzebuergesch) was also spoken before 1920 in other Belgium villages: Beho (= Bochholz, Bokels - North of Bastogne/Bastnach/Bastenaken) and the Land of Arlon (= Arelerland). Those villages are heavily frenchified nowadays.
The French period was very very brief like after the French Revolution. Before it belongs of course to the Principality of Stavelot-Malmedy (Holy Roman Empire). Malmedy is however Walloon for ages. During the 19 and 20 century Walloon was greatly exchanged for the French standard language by the Walloon people (supported by the school system and the media). Walloon and French are very strong related (Gallo-Romance languages) like Dutch and German (West Germanic languages).
Not the whole Canton of Malmedy is French speaking (or Walloon speaking) like shown in the video, only the municipalities Malmedy and Waimes are Walloon. In the year 1977 the German speaking municipalities Bütgenbach and Büllingen left this canton.
Malmedy and Waimes are called "Malemdər" ans "Weims" by the German speaking neighbours and Bütgenbach and Büllingen have Walloon expressions: "Bût'ba" and "Bolindje" or "Bullange" in French.
The "French" name Botrange (Walloon Bôdrindje) is of Germanic origin: *Baldringen and means "at the people of Balthahari". The Germanic suffix -ingen is romanized in -ange like Büllingen = Bullange and another 100 examples elsewere. The place is not far from the Germanic-Romance language border. It seems this Germanic origin is forgotten by the German speaking neighbours.
I went there in the Summer of 2021 and it's one of the most beautiful places for nature sight seeing in Belgium with the Kalmthoutse Heide being a close second. Just the fact that it's so open and wide gives you such a feeling of freedom, incredibly amazing, highly recommend visiting. Thank you for covering this place in a video! :)
For me, this channel is the best travel vlog channel on youtube.
No drama, no bullscrap, no cringe scene, and no crappy product placement.
Just travel and history, as simple as that.
Your German is very good! The bits you said were pronounced pretty much perfectly!
less of an accent than the driver!
@@tommihommi1 Except his accent is foreign, while the driver is clearly native, but speaks in slight dialect.
Thanks for being Awesome Tim!
I’m very glad history isn’t simple, it makes for great stories
I can’t remember if you’ve already done a video on it, but there are enclosed parts in Noord Brabant (the Netherlands) that are actually Belgium, and if I’m not mistaken the other way around too. A while back, like maybe 3-4 years ago, some of the lands swapped ownership.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baarle
The Dutch page has a better map!
nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baarle
It’s not too uncommon with all the border shifts, but 20 km south of where I live, a Dutch town Kerkrade has a street that’s Dutch on one side, and German on the other: Neustraße.
Hi, I'm from Malmedy :D
Good video btw ;)
Loved the war picture in Malmedy
Maybe you would like to do the highest mountains of evvery german state? There are some pretty interesting ones. The lowest is 32,5 m high in Bremen and the highest is the Zugspitze with 2962 m in Bavaria.
The Brocken (Saxony-Anhalt) is very famous for its role during the cold war, as a place for witches' dancing in Goethe's "Faust" and also has a very nice steam railway going up. You can also climb up, but it takes quite a while.
Love your content!
3:35: "It's pretty flat" say someone wearing a, wait for it, ...
... flat cap.
Okay, this is what is called a "Flachwitz" in my native German, literally a "flat joke". I'll get my coat now, and flat cap.
The bus driver speaks better German than 80% of bavarians
The regional machinations you find to enlighten us about are a joy
Good video. :) I’m actually from Eupen. Kinda missed an opportunity to talk about the natural park of the „Hohes Venn“ as it’s a pretty special ecosystem that is also under threat from climate change and drying out.
If it's a view you want over Belgium, Netherlands and Germany I recommend going to the top of the 1906 Wilhelmina tower in Valkenburg and the mines are creepy but fascinating too.
Eupen, Malmédy and Sankt Vith were part of the Austrian Netherlands, before Belgium became an independent state.
In the French period (1794 till 1815) these areas were part of the Departement de l’ Ourthe (later Province de Liège). In fact Sankt Vith belonged to the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg. Stavelot Malmedy was a religious domain governed by an abbey.
Only at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 these parts were given to Prussia, although Malmedy was and is still French speaking.
So the claims of Belgium on this area at the treaty of Versailles (1919) had indeed historical grounds.
Still my favorite site. Just love learning this obscure history. Makes me want to travel more!
"What a beautiful view", proceeds to show an industrial site. I love this channel.
Ah Baba Yetu at 4:04. Ah man of class :)
When i read the title i was like "What? Germany gave Belgium the Zugspitze? When did this happen?". And then i realized that you are talking about the highest mountain of Belgium and not the highest mountain of Germany xD
"the bus is about 15 minutes late and there's also road works".
Potverdekke, it's great to be a Belgian!
almost as much fun as waiting for the train to arrive :D
Good that they are renovating the parking area as that was really needed.
Tim, there's another possible topic for you: In Carinthia (Austria) there's a dispute going on since the end of WW1 if (and if so, which) town name signs need to be bilingual.
Apart from vandalism, signs going missing or getting magically replaced during the night, this dispute had some hilarious lawsuits. For example: A lawyer refused to pay a speeding ticket because a town sign was not bilingual, the speed limit is tied to the proper town signs. But because the sign was not bilingual as required by the Austrian constitution, the sign was invalid, therefore the speed limit was not in effect, therefore the speeding ticket is not valid. So if the town wants to enforce the speed limit (and other restrictions required by law within town limits), the town must put up bilingual signs. From what i dimly remember, the proper signage was then put up, and promptly stolen or vandalized by people who refuse to accept bilingual signs.
This all ties in with promises made by politicians in the 1920 Carinthian plebiscite, which created as much problems as it solved. To be fair, those were new, exciting problems, designed to be NOT solved by the next few dozen generations.
If you think that a spanish town ending on the wrong side of the border is petty, those spaniards have nothing, NOTHING on us carinthians. We all agree that the towns ended (mostly) on the correct side, we just can't agree on what the town names actually are.
www.google.de/search?q=carinthia+bilingual+sign+dispute
There's also a somewhat lengthy german-language Wikipedia article: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ortstafelstreit
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1920_Carinthian_plebiscite
Tim needs to break out his German and visit Carinithia. The explanatory portion of that video should be fun. 😅
I'd watch that video.
I have seen bilingual town signs in belgium that got vandalized. Seems to be a common thing around the world.
>promptly stolen or vandalized by people who refuse to accept -bilingual signs.-
refuse to accept speeding tickets
they get "vandalized" (stolen) because they're a fun home decoration for students
@@crackwitz believe me, this has pretty much nothing to do with students.
Love the additions to the songs
I love what you did here to the intro of the intro music.
Tim, I love your channel. Thank you for taking the time and effort to make these. Never too old to learn !!
Maybe the skis are meant for that little man made tower. You can ski down the steps when they ice over 😊
I’ve lived in Brussels for 32 years and I’ve never been there, although I’ve spent many a long weekend in charming Malmédy. I’m so glad you’ve done that for me now! 😅
I used to live near the Dutch summit Vaalserberg and Signal de Botrange is just a short car ride away. I've been there several times. The Hautes Fagnes (High Fens) around it are pretty good as well, if you like raised bogs and its plant life.
Belgium!! Don't you just just love the implausibility and impossibility of it!! Great work, Tim. Keep them coming please!!
We went there with highschool camp -- which by now is quite some time ago.
Oh the good old times....
There are actually a couple of good skiing slopes in Ovifat, right next to it.
Ik love how you keep on learning me new things about my own country!
0:09 "Yes, it may be small but it does exist"
Obligatory "that's what she said" joke.
I always learn so much from your videos. And so entertaining! Awesome work. Thank you.
Why was it playing Baba Yetu in the background? out of everything in this video that song is now (again) stuck in my head😅
If you think that this Malmedy speaking French is weird, just check the maps of the Province of Liège since year 1000. It has been Spanish, part of Burgundy, Austrian, German, French, it has been a prince-bishopy and a constellation of small patches of Duchy of Limburg, Luxemburg, Maastricht and a lot more.
I'm from that area and doing genealogy research is amazing. You get French revolution calendars, Holy German Empire in gothic characters but written in French, lots of Dutch...
There are a lot of nice places around. It's pretty close to Spa, the city that gave its name to the spa, and also famous for its awesome race circuit. Stavelot, Malmedy, ...
Did all three summits in one day, on a motorcycle expedition a year ago. Tough job for man and machine. Three countries and their highest peaks. Unforgettable. 🤪
I will sleep soundly tonight knowing that you can ski in Belgium. Then wake in a cold sweat at the thought of Sudden Belgian syndrome..
7:10 Jap, alle Klarheiten beseitigt. ;)
You handled the exchange with the bus driver very well, that guy made absolutely no effort to speak more slowly or with less of a dialect.
You seem to like my part of the country a lot. Several videos in the Aachen/Belgium/NL corner already :-)
"Because it's there" has never been more apt.
I RE-watched the video just to hear that lovely piano version of the Playdays Bus theme
Potentially interesting fact: former Australian Finance Minister, Mathias Cormann, now Secretary-General of OECD, is from that little German speaking part of Belgium.
… and they’re very glad to be rid of him, too
As a belgian, I appreciate you teaching me things about my country,😊
you had me with your very sounding:hallo. best regards from berlin.🤗
A little fact check here: You were not on the highest point in the Netherlands. But to get there, you have to land on the shortest runway in the world, so two boxes you can tick off
He told this in the last seconds of the video of the Vaalserberg! This is since 2010
Baba yetu, yetu uliye, mbinguni yetu, yetu, amina!
Yes, that piano version of the Civ IV main menu theme :D
I was there the day before you! Well, at least I tried to go there on my bike but the closed road kept me from it. And maybe it’s pretty flat for most countries, my Dutch legs are used to the pancake I live on. Nice to see this video, now I know I was at least at the previous highest point of Belgium, thank you!
I've been up there on a hike from Malmedy to Eupen.Quite wild up there and I'd imagine people have frozen to death there in the winter.As I recall the buses in the German speaking area are run by TEC the French area public transport operator rather than the linguistically closer Flemish De Lyn.Malmedy seemed to be totally French speaking and most people couldn't speak Dutch although my Dutch comes via Afrikaans so maybe that was the problem?However it works in the Netherlands.After a search they found someone who spoke English and I had my hotel for the night!
People get lost up there pretty much every year. There was a guy once who froze to death a few meters next to the street after getting lost in the frozen swamps.
Thanks for the info, didnt know the history about it
Eupen Malmedy were part of the spanish then austrian low countries which gave birth to modern day Belgium.
I love the way you teach us history (the weirdest the better... 😂😂😂😂). Crazy Belgium's borders... Thanx for your excellent work!
It's not really a mountain, is it? You should have called it "the highest point of Belgium". It's a plateau.
Tim Traveller has provided pointedly purposeful pertinent pedantic profiles pertaining to the highest points of the low countries, well done! But it begs the question: what are the low points of the high countries?
It's great to hike over the Haute Fagnes. I hiked there during peak winter and the experience was really cool (no pun intended). I will strongly recommend to hike from Signal de Botrange (or Eupen) to Monschau in Germany.
Your German is amazing and I think the bus driver was very nice to let you go out there.
Hey Tim, would you ever make a video on the Oostvaardersplassen (A Dutch nature reserve that was supposed to be an industrial zone). It has some unique history, interesting politics and of course: trains.
Really enjoyed the Baba Yetu cover!
Nothing sums up Belgium like the fact that it’s highest point has a car park.
You should climb the highest point of Denmark, it's only 170 m
Hey Tim, I live by some small states in the United States. You should check out Delaware, Rhode island, maybe Connecticut.
What a majestic… construction zone. Still
I always love your videos. But can we have a list of what songs you're playing in the background? I recognised Baba Yetu, I am sure I recognise the first one but couldn't work it out...
Never mind, I worked out the first one...
@@GamerSpencer Why would you say this but not name the song 🙃
@@helenap3822 playdays theme was the first. Baba Yetu was the second!
I don't know if it's a universal definition, but in Belgian schools we learn that something is mountain if it's taller than 700m. So that would mean we're just shy of having one real mountain, so we joke that because of the tower we do have one mountain. Yes it's stupid, but it's just fun to climb the stairs and pretend. The surroundings are genuinely great to hike though.
Also, you can't climb the big tower because that one isn't built for tourists, it's like a watchtower to look out for bushfires (it can be very dry there in summer).
Did you know that the 3-countries borderpoint (B-NL-D) once was a 4-countries borderpoint ? The village of Kelmis once had a zinc mine, which was claimed by the 3 countries, and, thus, became independent. It was called "Neutral Moresnet". It was not to far from where you were....
Yes, he knows, watch his video of the highest mountain in the Netherlands
Sneaky Baba Yetu in the background. Love it
That building at the highest point,what was that before it came part of a restaurant ?
It looks like a sort of listening post.
TIL my GCSE history teacher gave us completely the wrong pronunciation of Eupen-Malmedy all those years ago.
Tbf even the people of Eupen (German-speaking) and Malmedy (French-speaking) would pronounce it "wrong" according to the other, so heck knows how you're supposed to say it in English. I'd cut your history teacher some slack on this one!
you are lucky its usually not allowed to have passengers leave the vehicle at non stop places due the height of the bus, someone falls = lawsuit,... he was kind and friendly and tried to get you as close as possible i guess.
Baba Yetu piano background.
at least you didn't need to walk on the left side while walking up to the summit.
Thank you Tim for bringing us to the highest moutains, it is so exciting. Please also, do you have a picture of the Queen in your wallet? please please please. Thank you.
edit: you are one the video maker that I will not miss any video. You are always producing adorable content.
Is 0:28 the circuit of Spa Francorchamps? The famous Eau Rouge / Raidillon grandstand?
Hi - it's the Kehrwegstadion, home to the local football side, KAS Eupen
a video about Eupen-Malmedy and *NOT* one single mention to or about Spa-Francorchamps
Construction work and late bus in Belgium ?! No way x)
Always entertaining.
I drove through the German-speaking area just 2-3 weeks ago along the motorway. What I noticed was the bilingual French-German road signs where someone had painted out the French. Why have it in French at all? I wondered. Perhaps because if anyone tampered with the French-Flemish settlement, eg by having road signs in Wallonia that weren't in French, then some area in Flanders might demand French-only signs, and all hell would break loose!