Sluis

The only belfort in the Netherlands. Belforten in the Low Countries are medieval watchtowers with alarm bells, attached to the city hall or another civic building, erected as an expression of civic freedom, power and authority against the Church and the King. They often have a carillon playing music regularly, and so does this one in Sluis.

It was constructed in 1739. In season, you can get inside for a small fee, but you can also buy traditionally made flour here or have lunch in the brasserie downstairs.

Features such things as a flying bicycle, a walking submarine, a hair helmet, a swimming umbrella, and extravagant ideas from geniuses like Leonardo da Vinci, Athanasius Kircher and Nikola Tesla.

Head to the beach in nearby Cadzand-Bad. This coastal resort town's main beach is nothing spectacular, but the Zwin Beach on the Belgian border is one of the most remarkable beaches in Zeeland. The Zwin is a nature reserve at the North Sea coast, on the Belgian-Dutch border. It consists of the entrance area of a former tidal inlet which during the Middle Ages connected the North Sea with the ports of Sluis and Bruges inland. While the inland nature reserve mainly consists of mudflats and tidal marshes and places where birds breed, the coastal entrance to the park is a vast expanse of sandy beaches surrounded by dunes. At high tide, most of this sandy plain is flooded by the sea, but at low tide only a narrow channel of water remains in the middle, separating the Netherlands from Belgium. At low tide, it is possible to walk over from the Dutch to the Belgian side or vice versa, but beware you have to wade through 50-80 cm of fast-flowing water. The deeper inland you cross, the shallower the water. Also beware that, when the tide turns and water comes back in, it might be impossible to cross back into the Netherlands, meaning you have to walk all the way around the entire nature reserve (more than 5 km - this would be less of a problem if you also carried your bicycle across). Tide tables for nearby Zeebrugge can be found online. On the Dutch side of the Zwin Beach, there is one beach bar/restaurant (De Zeemeeuw - the most southwesterly restaurant in the Netherlands). On the Belgian side, you will find the most empty and unspoilt stretch of beach on the entire Belgian seaside. Only after 5 km do you reach Knokke-Heist, the first town on the Belgian coast.