A long time ago…

This is the city I was born in. We lived in an apartment building along the boulevard in Vlissingen. My parents had an apartment on the 4th floor, you can see the building, it has the green covered structure against the facet. It is high tide in this picture, as the little beach that falls dry during low tide.

Along the boulevard in Vlissingen

As kids we used to spend most of our summer on that beach, or on the boulevard. The picture below was taken in 1960, that’s my grandma and me in the stroller. You can see a little strip along the bottom of the boulevard, that is the beach!

Boulevard Vlissingen 1960

1960

The “bomfry” tower was first build in 1401and initially consisted of two towers and a portal. In 1610 it became the prison, hence the dutch name: Gevangen toren”. It has had different functions since, you can read more here and here. Unfortunately both pages are in Dutch only, if any of my readers are interested in the history, I will gladly translate for them. The cool thing is how they constructed the tower, with alternating layers of natural and clay stones. And the walls are SOOO thick!

The “bomfry” tower; Gevangen toren

Currently it houses a gourmet restaurant. You can view some of the interior here.

The bomfry tower, close up

In this picture you can see more of the brick work, the lighter stone being natural, Look towards the chimney and you may get an idea how thick the walls are.

Ships sailing to Antwerp

The boulevard in Vlissingen is known for the ships that pass so close to the shore, you could almost touch them. Historically an important harbor, it’s main function today is to pilot the big ships through the channel of “de Schelde” safely to Antwerpen.

Towards “Nolle” beach

All along the boulevard are stairways down to beach level, and many restaurants. At any given day at any given time people are walking along the boulevard; “even uitwaaien”(take a stroll). One of my favorite things to do, when I get back home is: ” Een rondje boulevard”.

Vlissingen

A lot has changed over the years as you can see on these pictures. See that strange little white tower?
That used to be the “Zee vaart school”. My dad went to school there to become a machinist on a ship.