Some photos (and video) from our holiday

[Comet]

A small selection of photos from our 2011 holiday, the first few days were affected by the weather, but from Saturday onwards it improved


Boats in Oostende, the first full day was affected by rain, alot of it!


An Eupen-bound train in Oostende. We only went as far as Brugge though.


Our ancient train awaits us in Brugge. These trains are fun


Inside "t'awd stoptrein".


Our first trip destination, my favourite of the two Zeebrugge stations.


A beach hut in Zeebrugge.


A water dispenser on Zeebrugge beach. It was very windy on the beach that day.


Fishing boats in Zeebrugge.


The Fishers' Cross in Zeebrugge.


A preserved fishing boat in Zeebrugge.


Beach in Wenduine. We caught the tram here from Zeebrugge.


Bredene.


Bredene with Oostende visible in distance.


Horse in Bredene. I think this is an Iceland horse, that is why I photographed it!


Bredene's unusual water tower.


We had a trip to Oostende Airport but these two MD11s were the only aircraft there.


The City Rail stoptrein in Brugge.


Lissewege station looking smart after the scaffolding had been removed.


Lissewege.


Lissewege.


Lissewege's pretty canalside with Zeebrugge in distance.


Lissewege. There was a sculpture trail through the village. Huyze Saeftinghe is where we had dinner - highly recommended!


Lissewege.


Lissewege sculptures.


Lissewege's imposing church tower.


Tourist building in Lissewege.


Lissewege church.


Back of Lissewege church.


Lissewege.


Line 51A looking towards Brugge from Lissewege.


Line 51A looking towards Zwankendamme and Zeebrugge from Lissewege.


A vintage Kusttram in Oostende, may have been running for Open Monuments Day.


Middelkerke beach and dunes.


"Caterpillar #5bis" in Middelkerke. We walked the length of Middelkerke seafront to find this, it is at the border with Westende!


Beach huts on De Panne beach.


Beach hut, De Panne.


Moray eel in Aquatopia. Aquatopia is well worth a visit.


Lobster in Aquatopia.


Lombardsijde taken from the back of a Kusttram.


The only shrimp fisherman we saw in Oostduinkerke!


Nieuwpoort lighthouse.


Nieuwpoort.


Prince Albert Memorial, Nieuwpoort.


Peacock butterfly, Nieuwpoort.


Oostende marina.


"T'awd watter tower" Oostende.


Swan, Oostende.


Sculpture, Oostende.


A building site, aka Oostende beach!


The fantastic Stad Kortrijk, our favourite Oostende eaterie. The chips here are divine!


My video of Oostende Thursday market.


Lissewege.

[jan_olieslagers]

Lissewege is very nice indeed, and much undervalued by the locals. Just like so many nice places, of course. I seem to remember the tower was originally built as a signal fire, and eventually re-applied as a church steeple.
As for "De stad Kortrijk", I must admit you managed to get me curious!

[sn26567]

Excellent pictures.

Wow, one of the brand new 1800 locomotives from Siemens! You were lucky.

CirtyRail trains should not be wandering in the Bruges area: they are reserved for traffic around Brussels.

The monument in Nieuwpoort is devoted to King Albert I, not Prince Albert.

The restaurant Stad Kortrijk, formerly and better known as La Ville de Courtrai, draws only mixed reviews, but I cannot judge, since I've never been there.

[Comet]

Thanks for the comments

I had wanted to see Lissewege for ages, going through it on the train, where you can see the church tower if you are on the right side, made me curious to see what the village was like. Finding a brochure about it convinced us to give it a try, and we weren't disappointed. If the trains had been a little more regular (one every two hours on a Saturday) we would have explored more. I would certainly like to go again, eat in that nice restaurant and have a walk round to see more of the countryside. I'd also like to have a proper look round Damme as well.

I'd never seen those 1800s before, that is why I photographed one. I'm more used to those blue "heavy duty" type things or the grey ones pulling the Eupen trains. I must admit I'm not a fan of the City Rail stoptreins, I prefer the red ones (like the earlier one in my post). The City Rail thing made a weird noise both times we went on it and we were glad to get off it! (You can hear what I mean towards the very end of the Lissewege video) I don't know if they're supposed to make that noise or if there was something wrong with it, but I wouldn't want to spend very long on one if that is normal. I was surprised to see that thing was operating on the Zeebrugge line that Saturday. I know if you're unlucky you sometimes get a modernised stoptrein on that line but I'd not seen one of those before.

We "discovered" Stad Kortrijk last year, and we've eaten various meals in there - whole plaice with shrimps, steak and chips, omelette and chips, omelette with shrimps and chips and they've all been excellent quality, and freshly cooked (you can see food being cooked as the ground floor is open plan). The menu is not extensive and I've not seen any desserts but what we have had has always been consistent quality, and the prices can't be beaten. Each day we were in Oostende for dinner we ate here and were never disappointed. I really do recommend it to anyone visiting Oostende.

[Persian]

What is the population of the town? It makes an impression of a small town that has really lots of sights... I wish I had an opportuinity to go on holidays!

[regi]

What is the population of the town? It makes an impression of a small town that has really lots of sights... I wish I had an opportuinity to go on holidays!

I suppose you mean Ostend ?
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oostende

69,000 inhabitants.
Ostend has indeed many different corners, nice, normal, boring and utterly disgusting, sometimes all in the same street.
The place is very wide spread along the sea shore.
Connections are very good with the innerland by train or highway. It has even an international airport.
For regional locals, as me, the town has a doubtful reputation. For beach activities, it is too big. ( so we go to Zeebrugge) The boulevard has seen better days. ( Knokke is nicer). Inner town is quite dillapidated ( compare that with De Haan ! ). And the night life is more dangerous than nearby places. ( Chechen mafia! )
But who am I to criticize? The city attracts many inlanders who still buy new appartments to come live here for retirement. ( the town scores very high in statistics of inhabitants who live of social welfare , pension, subsidies)
The city bomed when late king Leopold II had here his mistress. Real palaces were build, and a rail connection was pushed through so that our sovereign could get some R&R on daytrips from Brussels - in the 19th century !

Persian: you say that you wish that you had the opportunity to go on a holiday. I have no clue where you live, or what your occupation is. But a holiday can also be just 1 day.
So try to free up some time and enjoy exploring new places.
Ostend is waiting for you.

[Comet]

You could of course compare Oostende to Scarborough, which is a real b*m hole of a town, with no proper public transport, useless shops which sell hardly anything (compared to Oostende's nice market on a Thursday, we have nothing like that in this godforsaken dump).

Knokke is the least welcoming town on the coast in my opinion. Last time we went we walked along from Duinbergen to Albertstrand along the sea front, the beach was the weirdest I've seen anywhere, with fences up all over. We ate in Cafe Leffe (Zeedijk-Albertstrand 564), one of the worst meals we've had in Belgium with the exception of Gloptips in the airport and a place in Veurne which served bad chips (with a superb steak!). The veal in Cafe Leffe was like old leather, which veal should not be, and the staff were appalling. One snotty waitress banged our meals down on the table yet when she brought our bill she was all smiling, probably expecting a tip, which she did not get.

Zeebrugge is a treat, I adore the place. The beach is one of the best (Oostende's is currently - or was in September - more like a building site than a beach). The places we have eaten and drank in have had nice friendly staff and the food we have had has always been of the best quality. We always make a special trip there (even though it means catching two trains) whenever we go to Oostende.