Netherlands Trip - Nieuwpoort      14th June:

    A strong wind blew up in the night dragging a thunderstorm along with it, accompanied by much rain. Rex's ashtray in the cockpit was overflowing.
    The marina abounded with folk in the morning, most appearing to be non-sailors about to be taken out onto the expanse of the North Sea with trained crew for a taster session.
    A quick analysis of weather and tides for the forthcoming days indicated that the 16th would be an opportune day to move on up the coast. Now we had time to gather our thoughts and explore the town we were temporarily based in.
    Nieuwpoort is a town located in Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium, in the province of West Flanders. It obtained city rights in 1163 from Count Philip of Flanders. The town saw action during the conflict between the Dutch and the Spanish, with the Battle of Nieuwpoort taking place in 1600.
    Between 1757 and 1763, the town was occupied by French forces as part of the conditions of the Second Treaty of Versailles between France and Austria. In the 19th century, a large waterworks infrastructure project, the Ganzepoot, goose foot in Dutch, and aptly named since from the air the complex resembles a goose foot, was constructed to drain the polders and channel water in and around the town and to the North Sea.
    During the Battle of the Yser, part of the First Battle of Ypres during World War 1, Hendrick Geeraert opened the sluice gates on the mouth of the river Yser twice to flood the lower lying land, thus halting the German advance.

King Albert I Memorial

Memorial to the Missing

    We headed out to town, our first target being the King Albert I Memorial, which stood by the Ganzepoot complex. The memorial was erected in 1937-38 above the canal sluices at the mouth of the Yser. at the initiative of associations of Belgian veterans of the Great War. The circular monument is 25m tall and is 30m in diameter. It has ten columns, built out of bricks from the Yser plain. A prominent circular beam caps the structure. On this beam, there is a walkway with orientation tables. The architect was Julian De Ridder. On the central square of the monument, there is an equestrian statue of King Albert I, designed by sculptor Karel Aubroeck. The monument was severely damaged during the Second World War and restored in 1973-74.
    Adjacent to the memorial stood the Memorial to the Missing, where the 600-mile long Western Front reached the sea. This memorial commemorates 552 British officers and men who were killed in Allied operations on the Belgian coast during the First World War and have no known grave. Twenty of those commemorated served with the Royal Naval Division and were killed or mortally wounded during the siege of Antwerp in October 1914. Almost all of the remainder fell in heavy fighting in the region of Nieuwpoort in the summer of 1917. The memorial is constructed of Euville limestone and stands 8m high. It was designed by William Bryce Binnie, an Imperial War Graves Commission architect who served with The Black Watch during the war and was twice decorated for bravery. The lions standing at each point of the triangular platform were designed by Charles Sergeant Jagger, a celebrated British sculptor and decorated veteran of the Western Front. The memorial was officially unveiled by Sir George Macdonogh in July 1928.
    Located below the King Albert I Memorial was the Westfront Visitor Centre, which related the gripping story of the destruction of the town and how the strategic flooding of the polder plain halted the German invasion; a story of the power of sea water and the thoughtful management of locks and sluices. An art gallery in the Visitor Centre also enhanced the moving accounts.
    By the 18th October 1918 the Germans were on the outskirts of Nieuwpoort with seemingly little to prevent them from securing the coast and the all-important channel ports. Following the fall of Antwerp, King Albert and his tiny Belgian Army had retreated behind the Yser River, and with the aid of French reinforcements had set about defending what was left of Belgium in Allied hands.
    With the situation turning ever more desperate and his soldiers at the end of their ability to resist the German military machine, King Albert, after consultation with his Staff and civilian engineers, gave permission to flood the polders between the Yser and an embankment formed by the Nieuwpoort-Diksmuide Railway. On the 27th October 1914 the inundation was begun by opening the Kattesas. This proved inefficient and the following nights the Noordvaart was opened right under the noses of the Germans (by now the Ganzepoot Sluice System was in no mans' land). It was Hendrick Geeraert who played a major role in controlling the sluices; very much a local hero.
    Many decisions were made during the war, but in October 1914 King Albert, the Knight King as he is known in Belgium, saved the coast from falling into the hands of the enemy. Later, the Allied Supreme Commander, Maréchal Ferdinand Foch would state that France had been saved by a railway embankment a metre and a half high.

Stadshalle

    Suitably educated and moved by this story, we walked over the Langebrug from where we gazed over the Ganzepoot, the connection between six waterways and the Havengeul, and walked up to the Marktplein, a central hub in the town featuring historical buildings, art galleries, shops, and restaurants.
    On entering the square, we were confronted by the impressive Stadshalle, the Nieuwpoort Grain Hall. A hall existed in Nieuwpoort as early as 1280. After a devastating fire in 1383, which destroyed much of the town, the hall served temporarily as the Town Hall. The late Gothic style suggests that the building in front of us was constructed around 1480. Towering above the Stadshalle stood the square, late Gothic belfry, 35m high. The carillon hung in this tower until it was moved to the Church of Our Lady in 1675.
    On October 17, 1914, the hall tower was dynamited by the Belgian army to prevent the belfry from becoming a target for German artillery. Four years of shelling did the rest. The medieval market building was reduced to a desolate ruin. During the reconstruction of Nieuwpoort, the Stadshalle and belfry were rebuilt in their original style. In May 1940, the Stadshalle was damaged during a German air raid, resulting in the partial collapse of the roof. After the restoration of World War II damage, the ground floor was converted in 1956 into a Museum of Birds and Shellfish. The museums were dismantled in the 1990s to allow for a complete restoration of the Stadshalle.

Stadshuis

    Adjacent to the Stadshalle stood the Stadshuis, or Town Hall. The very first Town Hall of Nieuwpoort was originally located in the Langestraat and was destroyed during the First World War. When rebuilding the city, all major public buildings were to be concentrated on and around the Market Square. Four trading families therefore had to leave their home on the Marktplein to make way for the new Town Hall. The current Town Hall on the Marktplein was built in 1922.
    Architecturally the Town Hall belongs to the neo-Flemish Renaissance style of which, among other things, the stepped gables and basket arches are a feature. Above the front door is the Nieuwpoort coat of arms. The shield is flanked by effigies of a ploughing farmer and a fisherman with an anchor. At the top are the words 'Novus Portus', the Latin name of the city.
    In the building there is a rich collection of artworks including etchings, drawings, watercolours, paintings and sculptures.

Church of Our Lady

    And to the right of the Stadshuis stood the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk, Church of Our Lady. The original church was consecrated in 1163 by Bishop Milo of Terwane. Originally it was a chapel that was served by canons of the Sint-Niklaas abbey in Veurne.
    The main church is a three-aisled Gothic Hall church, with an almost separate north tower. The Gothic Hall Church from the 17th century was completely destroyed during the First World War. It was rebuilt according to the original plans, and again after WWII. The valuable stained-glass windows represent local historical events, in addition to biblical themes. On the Our Lady altar, the fishing boat stands out, as a symbol of the city. The brick neo-Gothic tower, which is separate from the church, was built in 1952.
    We strolled into the church, where we stumbled across a choir practicing. Rex was most impressed.

Inside Church of Our Lady

In The Grounds of Church of Our Lady

    Suffering from cultural overload, and Rex from a deep desire to return to water, we returned to the Yser, and walked downstream past the Vismijn, where we suddenly came across the magnificent spectacle of a large dredger from Breskens manoeuvring itself in the river. We were fascinated. Once in place at an odd angle across the river, large mechanisms, the width of the hold operated a hold wide bucket chain scooping up ballast from the hold as the mechanism slowly advanced. The ballast was fed onto a sequence of conveyor belts that eventually deposited the ballast onto a growing mountain on the far bank. The mechanism continued scooping up ever deeper layers of ballast from the hold. I was mesmerised. Rex was more interested in the spreadsheets behind such operations.
    A while and a beer later, we returned to find the operation completed and a mountain of ballast on the far bank.
    We bought provisions on our return back to the boat. One large supermarket had us stumped completely when it came to locating eggs, mind you most continental supermarkets seem to hide eggs in weird locations. Frustrated, I sought advice from an attendant. only to learn that they had sold out. I heard Rex mutter in his best Victor Meldrew impersonation, "I don't believe it!"; totally lost on the Dutch.
    After a pleasant evening meal in a town restaurant, we returned to Duonita as the temperature started plummeting.

Dredger