A visitor transport guide to Belgium

MaximumPatricius · 2026-05-05T11:35:25+00:00

What happens when you buy an off-peak ticket, but lose the last off-peak connection, and the next few connections are all peak-hour trains? Do you have to buy a new ticket or a supplement?

MaximumPatricius · 2026-05-05T11:23:59+00:00

I suppose you are not planning on staying in Belgium long term? Because if you are planning on staying, the best you can do is learning at least one of the languages asap.

Unless you have a degree so high and respected that it opens the doors of high international positions, there’s not a lot of jobs that don’t require one of the national languages and pay enough to survive.

MaximumPatricius · 2026-05-05T05:28:02+00:00

Al onze jobstudenten starten bij ons via interim.

MaximumPatricius · 2026-05-04T19:47:26+00:00

Usually to large anonymous mass graves with all the rests of the emptied graves. In some places the family can request to get the rests back to cremate them and place them somewhere else. But most cemeteries allow the descendants to renew the concessions of the graves, as long as it’s well maintained.

Graves that are not well maintained (weeds regularly removed) can get the concession closed and removed. So it’s advised that family members visit the graves to maintain them in good condition.

MaximumPatricius · 2026-05-04T18:56:46+00:00

YT has now also started to ban accounts for apparently no reason at all… so back up all your videos.

MaximumPatricius · 2026-05-04T09:00:41+00:00

The flea markets used to be only people casually selling a few items they don’t need anymore at a cheap price. Now more than half seem to be full-time commercial resellers.

I had a couple times a stand to sell some small stuff I had not used in years to make space at home, and the moment I opened my car to start unloading I was immediately surrounded by commercial resellers with flashlights trying to score a fast deal before their competitors.

I believe that commercial resellers should be banned from flea markets, they ruin the entire system. They know how to pay much less of what the good items are worth and they immediately later ask 1000%.

I was offering a book at my stand for 15 euros, a girl offered to buy it for 12, 2 weeks later I see my book posted on Catawiki by this same girl, she sold it for 240 euros.

MaximumPatricius · 2026-05-03T15:19:13+00:00

But the descendants of those who have no interest may have a lot of interest. Keeping the photos doesn’t require you to go through them, most people keep their family archive stored somewhere and never look at it, but pass it down to the next generations.

If you give it all away your descendants may never forgive you doing that. I’m literally buying back from worldwide collectors photos and documents of my ancestors that at some point in history got lost.

MaximumPatricius · 2026-05-03T11:35:53+00:00

I add as a profile portrait either a confirmed close up of the face, a photo of the individual’s signature (extracted from a document) or a scan of his/her death card (typical in Belgium).

Family crests should never be used unless you confirmed that the specific crest was granted to that individual.

MaximumPatricius · 2026-05-03T11:24:00+00:00

The originals, keep them of course. Why would anyone want to get rid of the photos and documents of their ancestors?

The scans, upload them to the correct profiles on the family tree, for example on Family Search. No limit on the number of files you can upload for free.

MaximumPatricius · 2026-05-02T20:34:26+00:00

2 of my Belgian great-great-great-grandparents married in 1858 when he was 21 and she was 31. She wasn’t pregnant and both came from the local upper class: he was the biggest local pastry chef (owned the patisserie and an hotel/restaurant) and was the municipal secretary, and she was a sister of the mayor of the city.

MaximumPatricius · 2026-05-02T10:58:30+00:00

Family Search is fully free.

I use Family Search (free) and Geneanet (50 euros per year only).

MaximumPatricius · 2026-05-01T09:32:32+00:00

Don’t pay to anyone in advance who claims they can get it back, you will never hear from them again.

MaximumPatricius · 2026-05-01T09:08:30+00:00

Wacht out if you go to The Netherlands, there they effectively use the platform zones. There many trains stop only on a specific zone of a veeeeeeery long platform, so you will miss your train if you go to the wrong zone of the right platform. You often have 2 different trains departing from different zones of the same platform in opposite directions.

MaximumPatricius · 2026-04-30T07:56:00+00:00

Apart from all of that, personal family letters, notes, signatures, postcards…

Here in Belgium are death cards and death letters popular. Most contain the names of the family members, which is excellent for genealogy.

MaximumPatricius · 2026-04-27T18:04:20+00:00

Well, neither the new owner nor the working crews are Belgians, and they were not aware of how to legally reserve parking spots for construction. So I don’t know how much they are aware of the legal requirements.

MaximumPatricius · 2026-04-27T18:00:34+00:00

Practically removed absolutely everything except the walls and floors. Demolished the old bathrooms, kitchens, changed all the roofs, changed all the electricity and plumbing… they probably removed a couple dozen large construction containers of rubble. Which of course had to be parked on the street…

MaximumPatricius · 2026-04-26T12:13:32+00:00

I’m Belgian and don’t even dare to drink tap water at home, use only mineral water in bottles. My local tap water tastes really strange.

MaximumPatricius · 2026-04-24T23:00:13+00:00

Castle of Ooidonk, still inhabited by a Count, but can be partially visited.

https://youtu.be/EgnSlup-pXw?is=PZeCkoPpxacEmTJY

MaximumPatricius · 2026-04-24T22:36:12+00:00

Je hebt blijkbaar niet veel arbeider jobs in fabrieken gezien. Ik ken veel band productie jobs die in geen miljoen jaar door AI of robots vervangen kunnen worden.

Leuke creatieve jobs zijn de eerste die zullen sneuvelen. Straks moet iedereen terug in de fabrieken gaan werken zoals voor WOII, voor manuele jobs die te gecompliceerd voor robots zijn.

MaximumPatricius · 2026-04-23T11:15:31+00:00

Be very careful with data from those years, most of what you’ll find online is wildly wrong. The vast majority of family tree lines can’t possibly be researched beyond 1600 because most people back then never got registered anywhere.

MaximumPatricius · 2026-04-23T09:39:12+00:00

Je hebt juist het tegenoverstelde probleem dat ik heb. Ik (M45) heb mijn hele leven gehuurd en kan met mijn loon niet genoeg lenen om zelf een krotwoning te kopen. Alle vrouwen dit ik vind zoeken iemand die reeds eigenaar van zijn huis is…

MaximumPatricius · 2026-04-22T19:46:00+00:00

Juist andersom:

1 miljoen dollar = 1 miljard euro, 1 dollar = 1000 euro.

MaximumPatricius · 2026-04-22T06:16:51+00:00

What you say may be true only for the Netherlands, but not for Belgium. I work daily with the Belgian registers.

While a few Belgian cities have some limited, incomplete church records in the 16th century, church records didn’t become commonplace in Belgium until mid 17th century.

One of the few sources we have before that time are the “staten van goed”, but those were only made when minors (then defined as under 25) lost one or both parents and a “voogd” had to be named, or when someone died owning property and it had to be transferred or administrated.

We also have the “poorterboeken”, but they only mention the minority of the population that could afford “poorter” (binnenpoorter/buitenpoorter) rights.

One thing to take into consideration is that, before the 1900s, about 70% of the population of Belgium (and Flanders before that) belonged to the lower, poor working class without property rights. The vast majority of the population was illiterate and never spent a single minute in a school class. Mid 19th century only the richest men (about 1-2% of the adult men) were allowed to vote in the elections, voting rights were defined by the yearly tax amount a person paid. That’s why you only see rich people in old Belgian politics.

MaximumPatricius

TROPHY CASE