In the third part of the Belgium photo thread, I visited Oostend, which evidently, is on the coast. Now, this city didn't blow me away immediately, and my girlfriend despised it at first. I had been here before many years ago to catch a ferry to London (via Margate) but all I remember from that time was the run to the bar on board the ferry, oh, and throwing up somewhere in between over the side of the boat (14 shots of vodka on heavy seas will do that as I learned)
The problem with Oostend are the shocking midrises along the coast, almost like an endless wall of concrete. It's really sad that the beautiful historical buildings were knocked down to make way for these awful structure. modern buildings of good architectual merit would have been ok, but what they built is really pathetic to say the least.
The beach is however quite nice. If you turn your back to the city and look out to sea, the sand is beautiful, soft and very wide. We moved up the coast to De Haan, which is about 25minutes away on the coastal tram. 10minutes from Oostend heading north, the scene gives away to beautiful natural sand dunes and stunning beaches. De Haan is very pretty, but quite boring. It reminds me of new coastal towns in Florida with giant expensive modern buildings built in historical mock tudor style. You could almost transplant De Haan to Florida or the other way around (ok, in summer)
By the end of the day Oostend grew on me, and I quite liked the town center which was quite lively. But jesus, what is it with piped musak throughout the streets!
Starting at the train station.
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