After the exhaustion of the journey we decided to spend a few quiet days here in Nieuwpoort to catch our breath and try to get our feet back on the ground.
Nieuwpoort has a modern seaside area and a pleasant old town in which there appears to be no graffiti, no yobs and no supermarkets!
The order of precedence here seems to be pedestrians first, bikes second and cars third. This rule is strictly adhered to and makes getting around so easy for us either on bike or foot – cars stop for bikes, which have their own paved areas coloured red! The streets are clean with lovely little pavement cafes in the main square and on every corner. Most of the residents speak a smattering of English (which is infinitely more than our Flemish) and are friendly and helpful.
However, the downside to all this old fashioned courtesy is that they have barely heard of Wi-Fi and there are only two places in the town where internet is available - the library and the Youth Centre. The latter was a real hit, as the guy running it connected our own lap-top to his system and re-jigged the parameters so ours worked! This meant we did not have to grapple with the peculiarities of the Flemish keyboard lay out and alphabet.
We will fuel up in the harbour as it is said to be a good price there and hope to get water further on in our travels. These are the annoying little things that we have to keep on considering and which we don’t need to take account of at home.
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