Nieuwpoort's cloth hall and belfry look medieval, and in a sense they are: they follow the design of the thirteenth-century originals. But almost everything you see was rebuilt after the First World War, when the town was reduced to rubble. Nieuwpoort lay at the northern end of the Western Front, where the River Yser reaches the sea, and in October 1914 the Belgians made a decision that changed the course of the war. By opening the sluices of the canals and the river at high tide, they flooded the low-lying land between Nieuwpoort and Diksmuide, creating a barrier of water that stopped the German advance. The front line stayed there for four years, and the town was shelled into ruins. The belfry is part of the UNESCO listing of belfries of Belgium and France.
The sluices are still there, at a complex of waterways known as the Ganzepoot, the goose foot, and next to them stands the King Albert I Monument, a circular memorial to the king who led the Belgian army during the war. You can climb to the top for views over the waterways, the town and the polders where the flooding took place. A visitor centre underneath tells the story.
Modern Nieuwpoort is a seaside resort with a large marina, a fishing harbour and a long beach. Its fish market is famous, and restaurants along the harbour serve shrimp, mussels and fish fresh from the boats. The coast tram, one of the longest tram lines in the world, runs along the entire Belgian coast and passes through the town.
The riding along the coast is flat and often busy, especially in summer, with heavy traffic, cyclists and pedestrians. The coastal road runs through a series of resorts, with apartment blocks, shops and roundabouts. Inland, the polders are quieter, with straight roads, canals and farmland, and the Westhoek region, with its war cemeteries and memorials, lies to the south. Ypres, with its Menin Gate, is less than an hour away.
Nieuwpoort has fuel, shops and plenty of restaurants and cafés. Try grey shrimp, peeled by hand and served stuffed into a tomato or folded into croquettes, a specialty of the Belgian coast. The wind off the sea can be fierce, and the weather changes quickly. Stand on the monument, look out over the polders, and imagine the floodwaters that saved a corner of Belgium.