De Panne

Up early this morning to catch a bus to Oostduinkerke for the first day of Vierdaagse van de Ijzer (Four Days of Yser). This four day march around the Ypres Salient is organised by the Belgian military and, amongst other things, commemorates the fallen. The 45-minute bus ride took us to the start line where we queued to get our pass and start today's 16km. Despite the numbers, it was quite efficient and by a little after 9am we were away. The first 5km took us just under an hour (Belgium is *very* flat!). As we went further however the terrain became very sandy and my knackered, holy trainers needed emptying on more than one occasion! After watching a parachute drop, we stopped at the ruins of the Ten Duinan Abbey and tried a local beer. Just past the Abbey was a working windmill, before we hit the promenade of the seafront and B had some fish soup. The route at the end of the promenade went down to the water's edge and again filled my shoes with sand. We hit the finish line in Oostduinkerke and I grabbed the beers while B grabbed a t-shirt. Another 16km tomorrow at Diksmuide!

Beer Index (Oostduinkerke) - €4.31/0.5lLes mer