Een Dag Op De Zeekost

A day at the sea coast. We started by escorting Martha to the bus on her way to the Brussels airport. We then took the train to DePanne on the North Sea. DePanne is on the far western edge of the Belgian seashore, right at the border with France, about 2 miles east of Dunkirk. We ate lunch in central DePanne at a lovely little oceanfront outdoor cafe along the boardwalk, then Allen and Dubby went wading in the surf. We expected the water to be frigid, but it was actually quite decent. It's summertime, and lots of Belgians and French citizens are enjoying summer vacation at the ocean. But it really wasn't as crowded as we thought it might be.

We then boarded the tram which runs along the coast, and took a very leisurely tram ride through the coastal towns of Koksijde, OostDuinkerke, Nieuwepoort, Lombardsijke, Westend, Middelkerk, and Raversijde.

Part of the way along, we disembarked to explore some WWII German bunker/pillboxes which formed part of the coastal defenses up in the dunes, then caught a later tram to continue our journey.

The weather was absolutely perfect. Wonderful day.

When the tram arrived in Oostende, halfway up the Belgian coast, we got off and walked along the boardwalk, but were astounded that city center was packed with tourists but the beach sand was deserted. Everyone at the beach was standing on the boardwalk looking out to sea. The pier was closed with police all along it. Police were all and down the edge of the boardwalk, keeping people off the sand.

We asked and were told that someone had "found a bomb in the water". Oostende, being a coastal port and logical invasion target, had its waters heavily mined during WWII. Every now and then one of the undiscovered mines breaks loose and causes some mischief. Nothing happened while we were there today, however.

We walked around some more, and finally around 6 pm, took the train back to Antwerp. On the train, we had a nice 2-hour conversation with a very helpful lady who helped us polish our Flemish language skills. We had a great "praten en Vlaams".

Bottom line: Yet another fantastic day in Flanders.