Page 124 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Belgium & Luxembourg

122  BEL GIUM AND L UXEMBOURG REGION B Y REGION

The Belgian Coast NETHERLANDS

The Province of West Vlaanderen meets the North Sea in Bruges Brussels
a 70-km (43-mile) long stretch of coast, whose beaches BELGIUM
of soft white sand are rimmed by cheerful seaside resorts.
With broad promenades, hotels and high-rise apartment
blocks, campsites, seafood restaurants, ice-cream and waffle FRANCE LUX.
vendors, bucket-and-spade shops and electronic games
arcades, these resorts can get very busy, especially in the Locator Map
high season of the summer months, but there is always Belgian Coast
an air of leisurely fun. Families return for their summer
holidays year after year, generation after generation,
relishing the comforts of familiar, time-tested pleasures.
De Panne is a comfortable,
easy-going resort where old- Oostende (see p126)
fashioned bathing cabins on is the largest resort Blankenberge
wheels line the broad beach, on the coast.
and sand yachts scud on windy
days. De Panne is home to the
popular Plopsaland theme park Bredene
for children (see pp308–309),
while the nearby Westhoek
dunes form a nature reserve
with wilder landscapes.
Middelkerke
Nieuwpoort lies at the mouth Westende-Bad
of the IJzer and is a centre for Nieuwpoort-aan-Zee Lombardsijde-
water sports. A large circular Bad
monument overlooks the Gistel
Ganzenpoot confluence of Oostduinkerke
canals, commemorating the St-Idesbald
strategic flooding of the Izer
polders in World War I. De
Panne
Veurne
Koksijde has the Paul
Delvaux Museum and the
ruins of the Ten Duinen
Abbey (see p127).

Middelkerke is a typical resort of the Belgian coast,
Oostduinkerke has an interesting folklore dominated by apartment blocks and far removed
museum and a Visserijmuseum (Museum of from its origins as a 13th-century fishing village. It first
Fishing). However, the area is most famous developed as a resort in the late 19th century, when it
for shrimp fishing, which is conducted here became a link on the coastal tram route, the Kusttram –
on horseback, with heavy draught horses still the best way to travel from one end of the coast
pulling the nets through the shallows. to the other.

122-123_EW_Belgium.indd 122 18/10/16 3:01 pm
Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
Catalogue template “UK” LAYER
(Source v2.6)
Date 12th July 2013
Size 125mm x 217mm