We woke up early, but I had some work to do, so Mark wandered off by himself for a bit and checked out the pier at low tide, when all the rocks are exposed and the birds are having a big breakfast buffet.
And then we all convened for our breakfast at the hotel across the street again–quite lovely as before, and I am learning to make double café au lait in the fancy coffee maker, because a single is not nearly large enough! Although Mark and I ended up eating mostly bread with cheese and jam (and for me, excellent lox) along with sweet danish-type pastries, the large chunks of chocolate from which you are supposed to chop little bits to melt on your toasted waffle are really quite impressive.
After breakfast I quickly wrapped up the work I still needed to send off to the States today, and we set out for a long hike into the back country and back out to the sea. The day was perfect for it–sunny with a clear blue sky but with enough wind that it was not too hot to walk across large areas without any shade (although we still enjoyed the woodsy parts). The goal was to walk through an area called “polder”–a behind-the-dyke/behind-the-dunes wetland or marsh which can also have fields with crops or meadows with cattle in between. The Uitkerkse Polder is a bird protection area, and then continue to hike from there (mostly on bike/hike trails and county road) to the next village on the coast, Wenduine. That was about six miles, with some lovely spotting of small and large birds, although all were hard to photograph, especially since we are not carrying Mark’s heavy tele lens on these trips for weight reasons. So you just have to take our word for it: We saw little songbirds in the trees and very shy marsh birds that live among the reeds, a peregine falcon on his nest, more oystercatchers (see yesterday), some herons, egrets, and a cormorant, and we heard three cuckoos, which is always amazing to us because they DO sound totally like a cuckoo clock, and even as a kid I would never ever hear them. Judith and Michael, who live in the country, say they hear them all the time, and see their share of herons, owls, and even the occasional eagle, so they were not nearly as impressed as we were.
Once we got to Wenduine, we were immediately back on the promenade, with the usual wall of condos or “bed castle” (Bettenburg), shorter than in Blankenberge , but just as ugly). We sat down for drinks (beer, coke, cappucino, sparkling lemonade) and what was supposed to be a quick bite (a mix of little fried things) that took 20+ minutes to make in an air fryer and about 2 minutes to consume, and then walked the four miles back to Blankenberge along the beach at high tide–me barefoot in the surprisingly not icy water, and the others on the beach. And since it was the first truly nice summery day (temperatures in the upper 60s, but it felt warmer than that), there were actually people on the beach in swim suits, not just in windbreakers and hiking boots, although only a few brave souls (and some adventurous kids) were in the water.
Once we were back in Blankenberge, we had walked for 10+ miles and it was after 3:30 pm, but Mark and I couldn’t quite go home because we wanted to make sure we checked out the tiny little “Belle Epoque” (art nouveau) museum near the city center. Judith and Michael had already seen it and opted out, but we had a good time quickly walking through the four-story house and visiting its rooftop. The most interesting things were displays all through the house having to do with turn-of-the-century photography (Mark got to see some fun older cameras, including the old Kodak brownies and the big large-negative studio cameras) and with the art nouveau tiles we have been seeing on façades, balcony floors and balcony walls all over the place “in the wild”. One series of water lilies made me realize that they came in whatever color you wanted them to be, because Judith has one in pink, and the one we saw were yellow. They also showed the tile pattern sample that matched those that were originally in the building that became the museum, and on the rooftop there was a large area that displayed these, plus benches that used all kinds of broken tile pieces of the same pattern as décor. That was neat.
After we got home (and were good and tired) we rested for a while, although I had to do a few things on the computer (Mark napped for a bit, but I don’t sleep well when I do that), and just before 6 pm we all headed back out together to go for a nice sit-down dinner. We had picked an Indian restaurant, and it turned out that we really picked well. The food was outstanding, the server very kind, and they even served us a little papadam and some samosa-like bites on the house while we waited for some of the best butter chicken and chicken korma I’ve ever head. We were sitting outside but out of the wind behind plexiglas, so it was just lovely. A walk along the promenade and out to the end of the pier on the side of the walkway that was protected from the wind was the perfect way to wrap up our joint vacation. We were home by about 8:30, packed most of our things, and tomorrow morning, we’ll have to say goodbye to the ocean!
