OSTENDE - BELGIUM

In 1722, the Dutch closed off the entrance to the harbour of Antwerp and Ostend rose to prominence. In 1838, a railway connection with Brussels was constructed and Ostend became a transit point to England a few years later when the first ferry sailed to Dover. Ostend grew in stature during the reigns of the Belgian Kings Leopold I and Leopold II, who both liked to spend their vacations in the city. Important monuments and villas were built for the Royal Family and the rest of aristocratic Belgium soon followed, leading to Ostend being called "The Queen of the Belgian sea-side resorts".

Today it's still very easy to go to Ostend from Brussels. It has become a city with a lot of very modern buildings in the city center and along the beach. All old houses very demolished and replaced by modern high buildings. The seaside has become real ugly, but of course there is much more space for tourists.

Lots of wealthy retired Belgians bought or rented an apartment along the coast, it's only 100 km from Brussels. You have the sea and also a city at the same time.



The church of Ostend





the station



little train for tourists



Shopping streat







habour





and very moody weather



This is the view of my friend's flat at Ostend.


More about Ostend here in my Countries & Cities Blog

Phase 2

more participants here

AWWWW MONDAY - WEEKEND MAY 30

Linking to AWWW MONDAYS

******

 WEEKEND

Our TV is quite old and before moving I wanted to buy a new one. After lunch I drove to the first shop ! When I saw the line of at least 10 people with their masks standing on a yellow line, my heart sank and I decided not to stand there in the sun and wait until it was my turn. I went further to a big store and there it was the same.

As Nicole lives just around the corner I stopped and asked her if she wanted to come with me, she agreed because she needed a new vacuum cleaner. We decided to first drink a cup of coffee and sit a bit on her terrace in the sunshine. We thought that maybe later there would be less people. Suddenly I realized that it was Saturday ! With this lockdown I never know what day we are. Shopping on a Saturday was suicide and as we were so nicely installed we became both too lazy to get up, take the car and probably line up at the shop.

I will go on Tuesday, as Monday is Whit Monday and everything closed !

On Sunday we were invited by Mr. G's friend with whom he plays Whist, together with my lockdown friends ! It was beautiful summer weather and we could all sit in the required distance.



We chatted together and they had a glass of white wine, while I drank my alcohol free beer. The fishes in the pond were waiting for food and suddenly we had a new guest who kept us company the whole afternoon and wasn't shy at all ! A pheasant !! He had beautiful colors the back golden, a white collar and a shiny green head !

It was a nice afternoon despite the fact that I was very tired from all the papers I had to do for the moving and the whole organization. Mr. G unfortunately is no help at all,  he is afraid of the moving and is rather disturbing me than helping. For the first time I felt really alone and down and was rather happy when the afternoon was over. Maybe we were too many. When I meet with my "lockdown" girls they rather cheer me up.