Former list member Brandon "Monkeyboy" Ives now lives in Ghent while his wife studies obscure early Flemish painters, and they have a weblog, or blog detailing their experiences in Belgium. To read about Elfie and Monkeyboy's Excellent Flemish Adventure:
http://homepage.mac.com/
somewhere in the bikes category are photos of the Plum bike shop Jay Van De Velde Seal Beach,CA
Toni Theilmeier <Toni.Theilmeier@t-online.de> wrote: Good heavens, yes, we must visit him, nearly forgot.
Seriously, no idea about Merckx´s language preferences. People who attended the IVCA meet should know, wasn´t he invited?
Thanks to all who answered. Got some very good ideas.
My impression from several visits to Belgium is that most people really don´t care more than i.e. I myself care about speaking traditional Low German which is very much akin to old fashioned Dutch (was brought up in an area where people still speak it); then there are some who really do, and they tend to voice their views quite loudly, radically and nastily. Politically tolerant Belgians will just have the same ideas as tolerant Americans, Germans or whoever. But then of course if you have a shop, perhaps even frequently visited by tourists, some folklore can´t do any harm.
Regards,
Toni Theilmeier, Belm, Germany, who can get by in Flanders with his knowledge of Low German. Goes to show we´re all Europeans, really.
> I always wonder how Eddy Merckx fit into that environment. He has a
> distinctly Flemish name, but I've read that he always spoke almost
> exclusively French. Of course when you're a national hero and cycling
> God, I suppose you could have a Mongolian last name and speak Swahili
> and no one would give you any grief about it.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jerry Moos
> Houston, TX
>
> renaissance-cycles wrote:
> Some thing to know when visiting this part of Belgium, many do not
> consider
> themselves
> as Belgiums, they are flemish! I made this mistake a few times when
> visiting
> a few shops in the area.
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