All aboard the beer tram
Jeff Evans climbs aboard the Kusttram for a beer journey along the beautiful Belgian coast.
With a bump and a squeal, the tram rattles its way along the Belgian coast. The journey is nippy and fun, sometimes as smooth as velvet, at other times as jerky as a fairground ride, as we scuttle past busy marinas, golden beaches and rolling sand dunes. With plenty of stops at regular intervals, it’s a great way to bar hop.
De Kusttram has run along the Flanders shoreline for more than 120 years. The electrified service is efficient and inexpensive, the perfect basis, I discovered, for a pub crawl with a difference in this most amazing of beer countries.
The route begins close to the French border and runs nearly all the way to the Netherlands. But, rather than simply cruising from end to end, I decided to find a hotel about halfway along and then daytrip east and west. I chose De Haan, a resort east of Ostend, not just because it houses one of Belgium’s finest beer bars but also because it seemed one of the most genteel places to stay. I wasn’t disappointed on either front.
De Haan is a delightful small town with some truly attractive buildings. The prevailing mood is of the 1920s, with Art Deco the inspiration. It even extends to the best bar in town, which can be found right next to the tram stop.
De Torre is a rather garish-looking structure, painted a bright cake-yellow with red horizontal ‘icing’. The atmosphere is down to earth and vibrant, especially in the evenings when the music is loud and modern, and more mature drinkers decamp to the terraces at the front an.....
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By Jeff Evans
Section : Beer Journeys
Page number : 68
