"To Oostende and Back" a Oostende Travel Page by gilabrand

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I never meant to end up here, but it was just one of those things...In the olden days, when I was trying to save money, I flew from Tel Aviv to New York with Sabena airlines which was offering what seemed to be a great deal. The catch was overnighting in Brussels, but the airline was footing the bill so I said what the heck. I was traveling with my 4-month old son (who hadn't slept a wink the whole trip) and my brother.

Anyway, it turns out an important soccer match was being held in the city that same night. There wasn't a hotel room to be had in all of Brussels. So, from the plane we were loaded onto a bus and driven to Oostende - about 115 kilometers away.

So you see the photo above? That is all I saw of Belgium. Road and more road, flat green fields, a lone tree every few miles along the highway and an occasional little farmhouse with a cow.

Actually, I heard that Oostende is on the beach. But we never saw it.

From the bus, we were herded into the hotel. It was the middle of the night by the time we were assigned a room. There was no crib, of course, so I slept with the baby on the floor (all I needed was to worry about him rolling off the bed). We closed our eyes for a few minutes, and before we knew it, it was time to board the buses and head back to the airport...