{"id":12757,"date":"2015-10-09T01:24:19","date_gmt":"2015-10-09T05:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/?p=12757"},"modified":"2015-10-09T10:24:59","modified_gmt":"2015-10-09T14:24:59","slug":"belgian-coastal-tramway-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/belgian-coastal-tramway-revisited\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgian Coastal Tramway\u2014Revisited."},"content":{"rendered":"

Last weekend (October 3, 2015), I made my second visit to the Belgian Coastal Tramway (LIJN Kusttram). This tramway is one of Europe\u2019s more unusual railways. It\u2019s a narrow-gauge electric interurban line that connects towns and cities along the Belgian coast using modern trams.<\/p>\n

The setting is peculiar to my eye, as much of the coast is characterized by mile after mile of high-rise apartments that face North Sea beaches. Between resort areas are heavy port facilities, such as that at Zeebrugge.<\/p>\n

\"Panoramic<\/a>
Panoramic composite of the Belgian coast exposed using a FujiFilm X-T1.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On my first visit, back in March 2013, I traveled from Ostend to the south end of the line near the French border. Back then it was gray, cold, and exceptionally windy. In other words, it was a complete contrast to last weekend, when it was warm, sunny, and comparatively still.<\/p>\n

During this more recent visit, I explored the North-end of the line with some of my Irish friends who are now living in Belgium. At no point did my two journeys on the coastal tramway overlap.<\/p>\n

\"LIJN<\/a>
LIJN Kusttram the Knokke terminus at the north-end of the route. (The tram carries a destination for De Panne at the far south-end). Lumix LX7 photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Blankenberge<\/a>
Blankenberge Pier. Lumix LX7 photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Blenkenberg<\/a>
Blenkenberg Pier. Lumix LX7.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of these days I\u2019ll need to visit again, and travel the line from end to end. I\u2019ve by no means worked the most dramatic or most characteristic locations on the line.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, I\u2019ve seen relatively few published photos on the route, which makes it a bit more mysterious, and perhaps more interesting to explore.<\/p>\n

\"Belgian<\/a>
Belgian Coastal Tramway at Blankenberge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Advertisements.<\/a>
Advertisements. Lumix LX7 photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sunset<\/a>
Sunset on the Coast Tramway. Lumix LX7 Photo.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
A passenger validates a ticket on-board the Kusttram.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Knokke<\/a>
Knokke terminus at dusk. exposed with a Lumix LX7. There are some 70 stops between Knokke and De Panne. That could take a lot of exploring!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tracking the Light posts Daily!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last weekend (October 3, 2015), I made my second visit to the Belgian Coastal Tramway (LIJN Kusttram). This tramway is one of Europe\u2019s more unusual railways. It\u2019s a narrow-gauge electric interurban line that connects towns and cities along the Belgian coast using modern trams. The setting is peculiar to my eye, as much of the … Continue reading Belgian Coastal Tramway\u2014Revisited.<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[10],"tags":[575,2994,2993,2992,2646,24],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/LIJN_tram_Blakenberg_pier_trailing_P1320974.jpg?fit=3648%2C2736","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2BVuC-3jL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12757"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12757"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12790,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12757\/revisions\/12790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/briansolomon.com\/trackingthelight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}