Belgium rings a bell!
As we enter Calais harbour, I catch sight of the first UNESCO World Heritage Site of my journey. It’s Calais’ flamboyant town hall tower; one of the remarkable belfries found across northeast France and Belgium. Together they form a group sufficiently striking to be a collective World Heritage Site.
They were what I’d come to the Continent to look for. Well, not just the belfries. I aimed to seek out some beguinages, too. These are enclosed communities for single women dedicating their lives to God, of which Belgium has more than any other country.
About 80km (50 miles) east of Calais and dominating the polder-like landscape of western Flanders is the 300ft-tall IJzertoren (Yser Tower) in the small town of Diksmuide. I pitched up at Camping De IJzerhoeve and was soon cycling three quarters of a mile along a flat and quiet country road to reach the tower. It’s in a memorial garden fronted by a large stone arch made from the rubble of the town.
Diksmuide, being on the front line, was flattened during WWI. As the Germans invaded, the outnumbered and outgunned Belgians fell back to the River IJzer. Here, in late October 1914, the Belgians resorted to desperate measures, opening the coastal sluice gates at Nieuwpoort so that water poured inland, deluging
