Diksmuide was almost wiped from the map in the First World War. The town stood right on the front line along the Yser, and from 1914 to 1918 it was pounded into rubble, along with its town hall, belfry and church. In October 1914, the Belgian army halted the German advance by opening the sluices at Nieuwpoort and flooding the low-lying plain, creating a watery barrier that held for four years. After the war, the town was rebuilt in the old style, with the town hall and belfry carefully reconstructed on the market square, and the belfry is now part of the UNESCO listing of the belfries of Belgium and France.
The great landmark of Diksmuide is the IJzertoren, the Yser Tower, a tall concrete tower on the bank of the river, built as a memorial to the Flemish soldiers who died in the war, and bearing the letters AVV-VVK, which mean All for Flanders, Flanders for Christ. It houses a museum about the war and the Flemish movement, and the view from the top over the Yser plain and the coast is outstanding. Just north of the town, the Trench of Death, the Dodengang, is a preserved section of Belgian trenches, only a few hundred metres from the German lines, where soldiers lived and died under constant fire.
The riding around Diksmuide is through the flat polders of the Westhoek, a land of fields, canals, poplars and small villages, with church towers rising in the distance. The roads are generally good, with little traffic outside the towns, but they can be narrow, and the wind blows hard across the open land. Cyclists are everywhere, and they deserve plenty of space. War cemeteries and memorials are scattered across the landscape, especially around Ypres, about twenty kilometres to the south.
Diksmuide, with about fifteen thousand people, has fuel, shops and cafes around the market square, and its butter and dairy products were once famous across the region. The coast, with the resorts of Nieuwpoort and Koksijde, is only a short ride away, and the abbey breweries of the Westhoek, including the famous Westvleteren, are within easy reach. The weather is mild but often wet and windy, so waterproofs are a sensible choice.