Oostende Warnings and Dangers

Just outside the centre there are 2 parking lots where you can park your car for free. You can also rent a free bike.

-Parking Maria Hendrikapark: The kappelestraat (commercial street) is only 5min away. Or take the bus, every 10min for only 0,5euro.
-Parking MediaCenter: During summer a tram will take you the the centre every 10min, in winter every 20min.

Ostend is - as always - under reconstruction.

Now they are busy reconstructing 'the Alfons Pieterslaan' again in the very centre resulting in long traffic delays, and dead end streets.

Also in front of the casino, it's a swimmingpool right now. They are busy constructing an underground parking with divers! The reason is that they cannot pump the water from the rain out, or the buildings would collapse.

With cigarettes at £26 per sleeve and baccy at £26.40 its tempting to bring more home than the limit. Be warned, when we were coming back Customs were stopping cars/coaches on the FRENCH side - before you get on the ferry- as well as the English side. So make sure you have got all your stuff packed properly and keep all your receipts handy, just in case.

Watch out late at night in 'de langestraat' neighbourhood, close to 'de koekoek'.

Sometimes fights with drunk English pigs. The reason is that England is just oversea, our beer is better, and they come over to party and some behave like swines. In England pubs close just after midnight.

Police patrols often and camera's will be in operation soon,so its getting safer...

Also watch out not to leave anything special in your car, at summer there are occasional thiefs visiting the coast from North France / Wallony to steal car radios,... mostly around 4-6 in the morning when the streets are dead calm.

At a certain moment this almost naked guy came in our direction.
He was carrying a plate with a drink on it... so for a moment I hoped he was our waiter but he passed our table :-(

Then I wondered if this was a new fashion defilé or if this guy has lost all his money and property at the local Casino???

Or maybe he was about to get married... got scared, jumped out of bed and ran away!

Seagulls are wild birds whose natural habitat is the sea and its immediate coast and islands. They are mainly carnivorous; feeding on fish, crustaceans, insects and even land-based species such as worms. They are however very adaptable and if they have an easier food source than hunting and fishing they will use it, even if it doesn't agree with their digestive systems.

It is therefore not good for the birds themselves to get fed by people and not only that it encourages them to settle around populated areas resulting in faecal pollution of the towns. They are quite aggressive feeders and if encouraged will snatch food out of peoples' hands, which in the case especially of young children can be dangerous and frightening.

Here on Oostende there is a total ban on feeding the gulls and anyone caught doing so is subject to prosecution and a fine of up to 250 Euros. As well as purposefully feeding, leaving food litter is also a no-no - there are plenty of bins around to dispose of food wrappers etc and these bins are designed to be inaccessible to the birds.

SO JUST DON'T DO IT!!

I don't think this tip really needs an explanation. You're near the sea. There are a lot of seagulls swooping just overhead. You do the math (and bring a hat).

Checkout the local weather if you want to enjoy the beach, it's not always sunny...
Here a picture of the autum stormy sea...