All About Royal Families

Kortrijk sometimes known in English as Courtrai or Courtray is a Belgian city and municipality in the Flemish province of West Flanders. In the Middle Ages, Courtrai grew significantly thanks to the flax and wool industry with France and England and became one of the biggest and richest cities in Flanders.  The city is often referred to as City of Groeninge or City of the Golden Spurs, referring to the Battle of Courtrai or the Battle of the Golden Spurs which took place on 11 July 1302 on the Fields of Groeninge in Courtrai.  In 1820 the Treaty of Kortrijk was signed, laying out the still-current borders between France and Belgium. Throughout the 19th and 20th century, the flax industry flourished and remains important within the Belgian textile industry today. To be honest, I only knew Kortrijk due to its railway station and the  direct train ways to Oostende, Bruges, Roeselare and other cities in the region. I never stayed in Kortrijk before. Huge time to search f...

On 13 September 1843, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and her husband Prince Albert visited Belgium. The visit Their Royal Yacht brought the couple to Ostend. During this visit, the Queen of the United Kingdom and her husband were officially received in Bruges, Brussels, Ghent and Antwerp. Ostend nowadays - a lot of differences when Queen Victoria paid a visit there ...  Of course the Queen and her husband visited uncle King Leopold I of Belgium and his wife Queen Louise-Marie. Waterloo In these days the battlefield of Waterloo wasn't officially visited. King Leopold I of Belgium didn't want that the ties between France and England deteriorated.  However in all silence, lord Aberdeen, the British minister of Foreign Affairs, visited the battlefield of Waterloo. His younger brother had died there in 1815. The Return In Antwerp the royal company embarked to their yacht to return to London. Source pictures: Wikipedia