Veurne, Koksijde and Nieuwpoort

Today you will take a tour along the southernmost part of the Belgian coast. In Koksijde you can interrupt your route to go to the beach and visit a few interesting museums. The Paul Delvaux Museum, housed in Het Vlierhof, immerses you in the personal world of this fascinating artist. Nowhere in the world have so many works by the world's most famous twentieth-century surrealist painter been brought together. Using a unique collection of paintings, objects and much more, the life and evolution of Paul Delvaux's work are illustrated in an intimate setting. Personal belongings and precious souvenirs alternate here with the greatest masterpieces. At Ten Duinen Abbey Museum you will discover the role of the Koksijd Duinlords within the Order of Citeaux, a European project avant la lettre. Not a boring, dusty affair or a far-fetched show, but a unique archaeological site and a contemporary museum that brings the story of the silent stones to life. The Maldague collection of religious silver also finds a permanent home in the Abbey Museum. At the IJzer estuary you will see another special building: the Nieuwpoort lighthouse, with its eventful history. The light tower was built in 1881 100m from the sea and 250m from the IJzer estuary. At the end of October 1914, during the Battle of the Yser, the lighthouse was shot to pieces. Rebuilt in 1923, in brick, it was equipped with an electric'lightning light\\\'. During their retreat in September 1944, the Germans blew it up with dynamite. The following year, a 15-meter-high signaling pylon was provisionally placed on a dune. The current light tower was put into use in 1949: a concrete construction painted with white and red stripes. The last lighthouse keeper has now resigned - now the operation of the light tower is controlled by electronic remote control, from the Pilotage Building on the other side of the IJzer estuary. The river IJzer, which you follow for a long way here, will ring a bell for many people. After all, this was where the Belgian army withdrew in 1914 in a last attempt to repel the German attack.