Quirks of Living in Belgium

Although we'd noticed long ago that Belgians will close off a lane of a road at the drop of a hat, we've noticed some pretty unusual cases lately. It's not unusual to see lanes diverted because a barn has collapsed or they're putting in sewers, but one day last week, on the way to work, we had to dodge a big pile of gravel dumped in the right lane in front of a house being rehab-ed. The next day the gravel was gone but there was an equally big pile of sand in its place.

Yesterday we got in a huge long line of cars leaving work and assumed there was an accident further down the road. Nope. The lane was closed off - by a couple little orange cones - because one half of two different crosswalks had been repainted. Never mind that it was rush hour. We halfway expected to see the cones there again today, for the other half of the crosswalks, but it rained so I guess they couldn't paint.

Given situations like those above, imagine our surprise upon seeing a crane perched on side of the street in Saint-Ghislain with its bucket hanging over a house on the other side of the street - and traffic streaming underneath.

Only in Belgium!