Dries Buytaert

It was such a beautiful day at the Belgian coast that we decided to go on a bike ride. We ended up doing a 44 km (27 miles) ride that took us from the North Sea beach, through the dunes into the beautiful countryside around Bruges.

The photo shows the seemingly endless rows of poplar trees along a canal in Damme. The canal (left of the trees, not really visible in the photo) was constructed by Napoleon Bonaparte to enable the French army to move around much faster and to transport supplies more rapidly. At the time, canal boats were drawn by horses on roads alongside the canal. Today, many of these narrow roads have been turned into bike trails.