I’ve a confession to make. I actually love Belgium. That is, I do know, not one thing journey writers usually admit. However Belgium at all times packs surprises and by no means extra so than on the coast, with its seductive dunescapes, artwork nouveau villas, gothic city halls, geometric artwork deco, and heaps of contemporary concrete. Excessive-rise condo blocks usually threaten the dunes, however the 65km sweep of the Belgian coast from the Dutch border to the French one is filled with curiosity.
Again within the late nineteenth century, Belgium was within the throes of railway mania. The mainline community was well-established and there was a creating maze of narrow-gauge railways. In 1885 the primary sections of an bold new route opened: when accomplished, it ran the size of the Belgian coast. It’s nonetheless in service right now, the one vital survivor of a community that in 1945 boasted greater than 2,800 miles of sunshine railways and concrete trams. It’s the longest tram line on the planet.
The route is an essay in surrealism, with Magritte’s murals, large bananas, piers that lead nowhere and sedate belle époque motels
153 minutes of cinema
Driving the rails from De Panne within the south-west to Knokke, near the Dutch border, is pure cinema. It’s a 153-minute visible feast on a line that’s now operated as a tramway, the Kusttram. In The Kingdom by the Sea, Paul Theroux got here to phrases with Britain by exploring its shoreline. An end-to-end experience on the coastal line is a method of coming to phrases with trendy Belgium.
I plan to set off mid-morning from the “French” finish of the road and cease off right here and there alongside the way in which. Armed with a one-day go for simply €7.50, I hop on a snug, trendy tram at De Panne. First cease is Plopsaland, the place gnomes wait in attendance by the doorway of the theme park after which the station is called.
A rollercoaster experience at Plopsaland in Belgium. {Photograph}: Thomas Faull/Alamy
All Belgian life is captured within the run alongside the coast, from these gnomes at Plopsaland to a thousand tearooms the place pensioners linger for hours over a single espresso or Leffe beer. Kings, primarily known as Leopold and infrequently Albert, make cameo appearances in showpiece monuments. The backdrop adjustments dramatically by the minute: one second a feast of classical colonnades, then piles of containers organized like avant garde artwork because the tram skirts docklands and industrial estates.
As our tram pitches and rolls alongside the coast, I ponder why this route isn’t extensively hyped as a splendidly eclectic journey. Belgium simply isn’t trendy; but tucked away alongside its coast are some fairly exceptional spots. The whole route is an essay in surrealism, with René Magritte’s magnificent murals within the on line casino in Knokke, large bananas dangling from flagpoles alongside the coast, piers that lead nowhere and sedate belle époque motels which have had their sea views obliterated by condo blocks. Bay home windows that when boasted shows of orchids and calla lilies now survey concrete-and-glass blocks, which stand between them and the sand dunes and sea past.
Thermae Palace Lodge, Ostend. {Photograph}: Hemis/Alamy
But there’s a quiet magnificence on this architectural insanity. The dunes could have been sacrificed to high-rise passions, however some views are merely gorgeous. I cease off in Ostend and stroll east from the terrace of the Thermae Palace Lodge in the direction of the port. There are sleek arcades, the inevitable statues of 1 Leopold or one other, after which the pleasing curves of the on line casino. It is a city that when affected to be the Monte Carlo of the north. It isn’t for nothing that the sq. on the landward aspect of the on line casino is known as Monacoplein. Too unhealthy that the one-time ferry port, for thus lengthy the gateway to the continent for generations of British passengers, is not utilized by any passenger ferries.
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Seaside type at De Haan
Subsequent cease is De Haan, simply probably the most engaging of the communities alongside the coast. Till the rails arrived De Haan was a poor seaside village of shrimp fishermen and their households. It was only a scattered assortment of huts, regarded by neighbouring villages because the hang-out of scoundrels and thieves. Inside a number of years of the arrival of the tram, De Haan had developed into an artwork colony and choose resort – one which was later to quantity Albert Einstein amongst its guests.
In De Haan the tram sits gracefully on the coronary heart of the village, in ashowpiece artwork nouveau tram station surrounded by high quality cafes. I go for the Beaufort tea room, in a decadent villa proper by the tram line. Nobody in De Haan now depends on sea fishing for a dwelling, but reminders of the ocean are in all places – the Beaufort is called after the Irish sea captain whose wind power scale grades the ability of the weather. Households sit for hours by the window, consuming unhealthy portions of cake.
The tram cease in De Haan, a city the place Albert Einsten as soon as lived. {Photograph}: Alamy
I hop on and off the tram and not using a plan. In lots of circumstances, it’s merely the placename that implies a cease could be so as. I pause at Preventorium. This one-time isolation hospital has its personal tram cease, although it appears that evidently solely not often does anybody board or alight. Many of the 200 locations within the Zeepreventorium clinic are actually occupied by overweight youngsters who’re attempting to return to phrases each with themselves and with a society that once in a while gives one waffle too many. The buildings are tucked away behind the dunes, out of sight and out of thoughts.
A bit later, I cease at Manitoba. No mounties, no moose, no maple syrup. However a gentleman ready for the tram all the way down to De Haan explains that the realm was named in honour of the Manitoba Dragoons, who in 1944 liberated the realm from German occupation.
From Manitoba we rattle up in the direction of the Dutch border, typically on traces laid in cobbled streets, slipping previous gardens and factories to Knokke, with its brash seashore bars and sedate artwork galleries. Right here the rails give out, so I alight from the tram and stroll on to the Dutch border.
Journey info
The Kusttram service is operated by De Lijn and departs each quarter-hour in the course of the day, much less continuously within the evenings, and each 10 minutes at peak occasions in summer time. A change of tram in Ostend is critical on many journeys. A one-day go (€7.50 for over-12s/€4 for 6-11s) permits limitless journey and breaks within the journey. A 3-day go prices €15/€8. Buy at ticket machines earlier than boarding.
There are good rail connections from Brussels and different Belgian cities to De Panne and Knokke. Ostend, 90 minutes by quick practice from Brussels, is on the mid-point of the Kusttram.
Nicky Gardner is the editor of Hidden Europe journal and the co-author of Europe by Rail: The Definitive Information, obtainable from Guardian Bookshop