It's a bit unfair to call Belgium 'the land that everyone forgot' - the country is one of the founding states of the EU and a significant economic player. What it isn't, really, is remotely significant in cultural terms. Among other Europeans Belgium is sometimes perceived as a bit of a joke - a country where nothing much happens except that it gets invaded every now and then. A popular challenge is to name three famous Belgians.
All this is a bit unfair, especially as Belgium doesn't really have a unique national culture in the way France or Germany do. The land it covers is historically part of the region of Flanders, a major farming and cloth-producing area that for centuries has been one of the economic powerhouses of Europe. For long periods of time the land that eventually became Belgium in the nineteenth century was divvied up between France and the Spanish-dominated Netherlands. Even the name is relatively new. When the place finally became a sovereign country after the revolution of 1830 it was decided to name it after the Belgae, the ancient warrior race of Celts that had dominated the area in Roman times.
Tomorrow, the 21st, is Belgium's national day, and perhaps therefore a good time to celebrate this often-overlooked little country. If you enjoy eating and drinking, it's definitely a great place to visit. Belgium's specialties are beer and chocolate, which may explain the slightly above-average waist size of many of its population. Probably Belgium's most famous export is Stella Artois ("star of Artois") beer.
One of the most interesting things about Belgium is its internal cultural and linguistic divides. Although nearly all the population speaks French, there is a large minority of Flemings who speak their own language, Flemish, as a mother tongue. Belgium isn't exactly riven with internicine ethnic strife, but if you're visiting it's worth remembering and looking out for the differences between French-speaking Belgians - who are more Latinate and tend to look to France for a cultural lead - and their rather more teutonic, Dutch and German-oriented Flemish countrymen.
Once criticism that has been levelled at Belgium is that it is faceless "Euroland" - a country that identifies more as part of the EU than as a nation state. This is perhaps understandable, given that the city of Brussels is the EU's headquarters. Even so, it is a country worth a little exploration, if only to find out for yourself if the place does have its own character or not.