Day 18 Saturday, April 27th Along the coast

 It was a bright sunny morning when we awoke being on dry land for the first time for some time.  Every thing was fine in our smart, modern hotel and soon we were ready to go down to a sumptuous breakfast in the dining room.  We had been on the trams last evening and we expressed a desire to use them again and so we all decided to on a long tram ride all the way to the Dutch border.  It took about an hour to go on the busy tram all the way to De Haan viewing the coast 

De Haan tram station

and the busy port of Ostend

new and old trams

 in the process.  De Haan was a very traditional style station and whilst we were there an old style tram car came alongside our modern one.  It was still sunny when we arrived and so we walked along the promenade to a restaurant and had a drink on an outside table. We were able to participate in the popular sport of people watching as we enjoyed our own company.

modern De Haan

After our rest time we made our 

the Mercator

way back to the modern part of De Haan and found a patisserie for a nice piece of maintenance food.  We carried on to the station and caught a tram to Ostend where we alighted for a brief look around.  There were some interesting boats in the 

ship in harbour

the large church

harbour including a square rigged sail-training boat named the Mercator.  We 

people wandering

went through a shopping mall and looked in the large church/cathedral which dominated that part.  We went across a bridge to the station and 

James Ensor tribute

watched as the bridge was raised to let a yacht through.  At the station concourse was a tribute to the famous local artist James Ensor which we had to add to.  We then trammed back to Nieuwpoort and returned to the hotel after an really good day.

In the evening we had learnt from the previous evening's experience and took a tram to the area where the restaurants were.  Eventually in the rain we found one which had a vacancy for the four of us.  We had a very good Turbot fish meal and returned to the hotel using the tram.