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Why'd Baarle-Hertog have to go and make things so complicated?
The town of Baarle-Hertog, located on the Belgium-Netherlands border, is an interesting geographical anomaly. Most of the time, national borders are clearly identifiable lines-- the US is on one side of the line, Mexico is on the other.
But in Baarle-Hertog, the border isn't a line at all. As seen in the map, parts of the Netherlands are sprinkled throughout this mostly Belgian town like raisins in a bag of trail mix. This makes for some rather odd results, as the Financial Times recently noted: "Apparently, women are able to choose the nationality of their child depending on the location of the room in which they give birth."
Wikipedia adds this charming tidbit: when Dutch restaurants used to have an earlier closing time than did their Belgian counterparts, restaurants on the border would simply move the tables to the Belgian side to stay open later.
[HT: BLDGBLOG]
Filed under: Stories, Europe, Belgium, Netherlands
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Secret Asian Man Jul 24th 2008 2:47AM
Man, I thought the Northwest Angle in Minnesota was stupid.
This is ridiculous.