This video is a fun tour of the Ostende area in Belgium. The seafood in this area is delicious.
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Fresh seafood on side of streets
The amount of seafood stands that are on the side of the coast is phenomenal. All of them offer different varieties of fresh fish and for extremely affordable prices ranging from 5 dollars to 10 dollars and up, but if you’re looking to simply have a small meal, $5 of fish will be plenty to satisfy ones appetite. And if you aren’t in the mood for street food there are a ton of restaurants and cafes that also offer seafood. Obviously because they are restaurants, the prices will be higher but compared to how expensive seafood can be in non-coastal restaurants everything is affordable. Belgium is known for fishing and seafood and is a must for all fish eaters.
Grand Place Ostende with Shopping street
Ostend certainly has a central area where people can gather for lunch, dinner, or to simply have a drink. As most other places in Europe this central area is adjacent to many stores. It’s nothing super fancy but you can shop to your heart’s content here. On Kapellestraat there are all the important large chain stores. And on Adolf Buylstraat there are all the designer clothing, shoes and accessories stores. Food in that area can range from a Pizza Hut to charming old style Flemish Pannenkoekenhuis which translates to Pancake Houses in English. There are also a number of chocolatiers and Dutch style Snoepje (Sweet) stores. Most street corners are either a coffee shop or a bar.
Beach
Ostend beach lies in the central part of the historic 19th century city center. This area is known for its densely packed apartment buildings overlooking the Northern Sea. Many of these buildings along the coastline have condos and apartments that are either rented out to tourists or overnight visitors. De Klein Strand and het Groot Strand are the main beaches along the coast. Definitely the one that most Belgians prefer to go to is het Groot Strand which is really large and has sand as far as the eye can see. Even though the beach is large, it can be somewhat of an illusion as the high tide and low tide in this region of the world is pretty extreme making the beach recede but also come back making the sand area of the beach more narrow but also much wider depending on the time of the day. And even though the sea is calm on most days it tends to be extremely rough during some winter storms.
Quistaks - Tandem Bicycle
A very popular thing to do at the Belgian coast is to rent out a Cuistaks which is a tandem Bicycle. These can be rented on the Belgian coast or in other holiday resorts, and are bicycles comprised of more than two wheels with the possibility of seating 4 to 6 people at the same time. Cuistax are authorized on the dyke but prohibited on actual roads where cars are driving. Even though it may seem a little silly to do they are actually a lot of fun and can make going from one side of the boardwalk to the other a breeze.
Petit Paris.
Petit Paris or Little Paris is an important crossroad in the city of Ostend formed by the intersection of three axes. There are several shops in Petit Paris, including a few cafes, a branch of a bank, a pharmacy and a few food stores. A lot of houses in Little Paris are in the Haussmann architecture style which refers to the quintessential Parisian style of 19th-century architecture that still defines Paris, and whose enduring appeal has made Paris one of the most visited and well-loved cities in the world. Key elements that make houses in the French style of architecture are balanced, symmetrical proportions, brick exterior, steep roofs, tall second-story windows, and porches with substantial balustrades.
Archways Ostende - Koninklijke Gaanderijen
The Royal Galleries of Ostend are a seaside neoclassical arcade on a dike on the beach of Ostend. They extend from the royal villa in the east to the Hippodrome Wellington horse racing track in the west. The galleries are over 380 metres (1,250 ft) long, with a large pavilion at each end.[1] The luxury Thermae Palace Hotel sits atop the central section. These galleries were constructed between 1902 and 1906 following the plans of architect Charles Girault on the orders of King Leopold II of Belgium. They allowed the king and his guests to pass from the royal villa on the beach to the racetrack without being inconvenienced by rain or wind. The galleries contain a great number of paired Tuscan order columns, with each pair sharing a bluestone pedestal, and each column has a simple torus at its base. They were listed as a protected monument on September 22, 1981.
#ostende #belgiancoast #belgian