ASIANOVERLAND.NET WINTER EUROPEAN  DAY 50/223: AMSTERDAM TO OSTEND, BELGIUM

 30/1/1981

After another huge night in Amsterdam, the punters are still hungover, so we stay on-site at our illegal camping ground at Central Station, Amsterdam, for the punters to have loo stops and wash at the free railway station facilities.

We then drive through a lowland area called Oostveen, meaning "east fen". A fen is a wetland of moss, peat and an alkaline or neutral pH, which has been turned into agricultural land by Bishop Godebald van Utrecht (1114–1127) after the Kromme Rijn ("Crooked Rhine") was dammed in 1122. The same Bishop gave land development contracts to those who would completely drain this land and make it arable, and Oostveen was a large section of this area.

The history of Oostveen is a small microcosm of the history of the Netherlands, but is particularly special for Cornelia van Oostveen (Corrie), who is the 12th Cornelia Van Oostveen in succession.

 We drive through Utrecht to Belgium, part of the Low Countries, which includes the current Benelux group of states and parts of northern France and western Germany.

From the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century, Belgium was a prosperous and cosmopolitan centre of commerce and culture. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, Belgium served as the battleground for many European powers, earning the title the "Battlefield of Europe", a reputation strengthened by both world wars. The country emerged in 1830 following the Belgian Revolution, when it seceded from the Netherlands.

We head to Ostend, for our ferry departure across the English Channel. Ostend occupies a strategic position on the North Sea coast, and had major advantages as a harbour but also frequently taken, ravaged, ransacked and destroyed by conquering armies.  The Siege of Ostend, 1601 to 1604, was summarised as "the Spanish assailed the unassailable and the Dutch defended the indefensible", and cost more than 80,000 dead or wounded, making it the single bloodiest battle of the Eighty Years' War. It subsequently became a Dunkirker base during the Dutch Revolt (1568–1648), for Dunkirk commerce raiders in the service of the Spanish monarchy.

In 1722, the Dutch closed off the entrance to the world's biggest harbour of Antwerp, and Ostend rose in importance because the town provided an alternative exit to the sea. The Belgium area had become part of the Austrian Empire, and the Austrian Emperor granted the town the trade monopoly with Africa and the Far-East. The Oostendse Compagnie (Ostend trade company) was allowed to found colonies overseas. However, in 1727 the Oostendse Compagnie was forced to stop its activities because of Dutch and British pressure. The Netherlands and Britain would not allow competitors on the international trade level. Both nations regarded international trade as "their" privilege.

I buy the last ferry tickets for the punters’ English Channel crossing, and we share a final dinner and Belgium beers.

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