Belgium and Luxembourg (Eyewitness Travel Guides)

WESTERN FLANDERS 119

De Haan is cherished as one of

the most attractive and agree-

able of the resorts, with a good

beach, and controlled develop-

ment that has preserved the

handsome, early 20th-century

villas. The name, meaning

The Cock (Le Coq in French),

was given to the town follow-

ing a legend that fishermen

were once led to safety here by

a cock crowing on the beach.

Blankenberge town has a pier, a 2-km

(1-mile) long zeedijk (raised promenade),

and plenty of holiday entertainment includ-

ing the National Sealife Marine Park and

the Serpentarium. The annual summer Sand

Sculpture Festival is currently held here,

inspiring breathtakingly ambitious work.

Zeebrugge (see p120) is the largest commercial port on

this coast and also has a popular beach. A 1960s Soviet

submarine and an old lightship are two of the exhibits at

Seafront Zeebrugge, the town’s main attraction.

Knokke-Heist (see p120) is

considered the most chic

of Belgium’s coastal resorts.

The tiny Neo-Gothic

Fishermen’s Chapel in Heist

was built in 1892. Today, it

is dwarfed by the modern

architecture of this western

urban end of Knokke-Heist.

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The Zwin (see

p121) is a wild

area of dunes

and tidal ponds,

frequented by

migratory birds.

It has now been

set aside as a

0 km nature reserve.

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