Belgium Loves You
I almost feel guilty. Do you know how it feels to just walk around the place that you call home and realise that you are no longer transfixed by the sight of certain things? How everything that surprised you at first now is mundane and routine to the point of being unremarkable?
I recall feeling this when I moved back to Malta from the UK at the beginning of this millennium. At first, things that everyone ignored where fascinating to me. A few months past and suddenly I was a local once more treating the surroundings as nothing more than background visuals which I ignored until I started rediscovering them a few years’ later.
The School
Now, in Belgium, I fear that I may have reached this point too. I have driven through this road many times before. It is a shortcut to the nearest petrol station that we use. The main road, littered with traffic-light-controlled junctions and tram intersections, is always busy so I take this route behind the buildings, zigzagging my way through the ‘burbs to reach my destination a little saner than I would have otherwise been.
I always pass at times when school is out so I rarely saw activity on this stretch of road. The signs indicating that children may cross randomly have always been there but I have always ignored them. The signs saying that you should slow down to 30 km/h during school hours have always sternly warned me about this but I never needed to pay attention.
The school itself is a nondescript building, shielded from the drivers view by the trees that line this road. There is a small drive-in meant for parents, I suppose, so that they can drop their kids off and not grind traffic to a halt. There also is a small sign that politely explains that the drive-in is not meant for parking but purely as a transit point:
Pucker Up
I especially like how the driver is giving the kids the finger …
(Note: The Belgians seem to like the concept of kissing and riding outside of a red light district since I’ve also seen it elsewhere)
Do you have a favourite ‘Kiss and Ride’ Zone? Leave a comment and tell us about it!
Related Unexpected Traveller Posts:
- Honesty Is The Best Policy
- Gare Du Midi: Lost By Translation
- Toilet Humour
- Gorillas In The Missed
- Belgium, Colour Me Stupid
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Very civilised surrounds. In my time, early sixties, even eating a hamburger in a car with girlfriend in the evening, got me a tap on the window and Police officer asking”and what are you doing there?” to which I meekly replied eating a burger. Later I realised that my car’s windows were all steamed up.
Steamy windows, burgers and a police man? Sounds like the plot for a Carry On movie, Henry …
Okay, now my dog Oli is staring at me as I laugh out loud to ‘the driver is giving the kids the finger’!! Some poor bureaucrat probably slaved hours on the prototype drawing…
The image does look like he’s giving the finger … or is it just me?
Apologies to the dog
Brilliant!
Considering how Belgians love and adore their animals more than anything else maybe the picture is reflecting their honesty in relation to children !
That’s a good point Diane – Bugger off kids, I’ve got to walk the dog!
[...] to me. Or maybe I’m the only one who thinks that they are strange in the first place. Living in Belgium has certainly given me a taste for all things surreal [...]