The village of Baarle: from Belgium to the Netherlands at a stone's throw

The border separating Belgium and the Netherlands passes just through the village of Baarle. Therefore, if you want to visit both of these countries during a short vacation, then Barle is just the place where this desire is easiest to fulfill.

The place where the border passes is marked on the pavement with white crosses, and it itself is not guarded in any way, and no barriers or bureaucratic formalities will interfere with a fun holiday.

1. But despite the fact that the border is literally drawn on the sidewalk, it is not so easy to understand where you are - in Belgium or in the Netherlands. The fact is that many Belgian enclaves of Barle are located in the Netherlands, and the Dutch, on the contrary, are in Belgium.

2. And those objects that are located on the border itself generally have “dual citizenship”.

3. The border literally bisects residential buildings and numerous shops and restaurants. To simplify this confusing situation a little, the "citizenship" of houses, shops and restaurants is determined by the front door - in whose territory the door is located, the store itself belongs to that country. And if the border stubbornly runs right through the door (this is also not uncommon in Barl), then the corresponding parts of the house are marked on the signs with the Belgian or Dutch flag.

4. Of course, such border confusion is a powerful magnet that attracts many tourists to a small, picturesque village from all over the world.

5. For taxi drivers in Barle, the border delivers its troubles. After all, the tariffs for their services in Belgium and the Netherlands are quite different, and the border literally winds through the streets, and in order to correctly calculate the cost of the trip, you have to sweat a lot, solving an intricate problem - how many kilometers the car drove through the territory of Belgium, and how many through the territory of the Netherlands.

6. The restaurant business also has its own specifics. The Dutch are obliged to close before the Belgian ones. And if a part of the restaurant is located in the Netherlands, then with the onset of the appointed hour, the entire audience decorously moves to Belgium to continue the dinner.

7. The accession of both countries to the European Union gradually erases these differences, but many of them still remain.

8. The intricate border between countries is treasured as it is a historical heritage. The village of Barle arose in the Middle Ages, and the border was determined by ducal agreements.

9. More or less finally, the border between Belgium and the Netherlands was determined in 1839, but changes are being made in our time. The most recent were introduced in 1995.