STAYcation is the new black this summer and that means travelling while staying at home aka the country in which you live. Honestly, I am discovering many amazing places here in Belgium and De Panne is undoubtedly one of these!
We had a cool escapade on the Belgian cost, in De Panne, a couple of weekends ago and although the weather was not exactly how we have imagined it, the relax was there waiting for us!
We booked on a low budget (189euro x 2nights x 4people), a two bedrooms apartment in one of the nicest neighbourhood of the city “quartier Dumont”, using Booking.com as usual (I am a genius member so I get a few offers and special prices each time).
De Panne is a clean and cozy town on the seashore with plenty of activities for everyone. The natural reserve of Westhoek is a few kilometers away (reacheable by bike), Plopsland is one of the best known water and fun park in the country.
For us, vacation means essentially relax and that’s why we usually avoid places like fun park and now, with Covid-19 security measures even more. As I said, the weather wasn’t super nice, apart from the very first afternoon, so we had to skip the natural reserve visit we have planned for the day after.
Instead we enjoyed long strolls on the seaside, playing with sand and breathing the salty air by the ocean. We and our kids really love simple things. We try to teach them we can have fun with simple stuff and by just being together and exploring a new place. This is our way of living when we are at home as well.
To warm up after the windy walk, we enter in the city center and we start looking for a place to sip a long and hot coffee and a rewarding slice of chocolate cake. And we were so lucky to fall on….ALFONS Koffie and Lunch! We immediately fall in love with the place and we enjoyed their homemade cakes and delicious coffee.
The weekend was a relax and food only theme 🙂 with a stroll on the beach here and then. On Saturday we decided to take the tram and to go visit the city across, Oostduinkerke. The kids enjoyed as always being in the tram, validate the tickets and this is always a huge plus because we teach Gea about what is legal and what is not and not least, the sense of civism behind the small gestures like this.
By the way, we went to Oostduinkerke and walked again on the wild, beautiful and windy dunes, imagining ourselves living there. Imagining winter times with a hot cup of tea in front of a big window of the living room, watching the ocean in a storm. Nice dreams, eh?
And then we walked back to De Panne, indulging in another coffee and let Gea take a tour on one of the most popular attractions on the seashore: the bike carts. She loved even though she teared up her favourite dress and we had to switch to a legging on the way (I always bring with me a spare clothes because, you know…I know my chickens!).
And to finish with a curiosity about Belgians, well, we had 18 degrees temperature and a thin&continous rain for both days but still there were people swimming in the outdoor pool next to the sea!
Vattelapesca 