Marianne and Louis will welcome you in their
Bed and breakfast in Maldegem near Bruges
fifteen kilometres from Bruges or Damme by
car, from the coast of the North sea
Knokke-Heist, from Sluis (the Netherlands),
40 minutes from the medieval University City
of Ghent, one hour from the main port
Antwerp and the capital Brussels.
Maldegem near Bruges is the key for a
short or longer cheaper stay in the Dutch
speaking part of Belgium.
Marianne en Louis have been teachers of
languages and Economics, they have studied
some German, Italian and Russian as a hobby
during their free time and they have always
liked to look after people in their big
house and garden.
After having raised four sons who left the
house at due time, they have looked after
the two grannies for more than five years
and at their retirement they decided to
welcome people from all over the world for a
short visit in their big house.
They had experienced bed and breakfast in
Britain, France, Canada, the Netherlands and
the USA during their long school holidays
and they have enjoyed doing bed and
breakfast for a few years now.
Meeting people in their home from all parts
of the world, has widened their world and
have made them more active than ever.
And most of all, they have enjoyed the
respect, the gratitude, the helpful hand,
the friendship of all those wonderful people
who loved living in a private home for a
while, with their children or their parents.
Direct contact with the local inhabitants
has become quite popular in this part of the
world. Flanders is very small and most
visitors enjoyed being able to visit so many
medieval parts of the country in such a
short time.
Both Marianne and Louis will never retire as
long as they are able to welcome and be
useful to other people who respect them and
make life worth living.
The whole project was enthusiastically
backend by their oldest son Michael who
created a website in different languages.
Their big house with garden of 7 000 square
meters has been built in 1974 and all the
guests have enjoyed the place, near the
centre of the village, three minutes from
the bus stop, with cycling routes all over
Flanders. The house and the garden have
become too big for them and they have
been trying to sell the house for a few
months now. It’s a bit difficult to find a
buyer nowadays but well. One day this will
happen. The bed and breakfast house is still
fully furnished and can be used but as they
live more or less in the centre of the
village now, they can have guests there too,
in their brand-new flats. They can offer
three bedrooms with private bathroom.
Maldegem near Bruges is a very big
medieval village in the country of Flanders.
The community tries to welcome tourists as
well and new footpaths, renovated buildings
have made the centre quite attractive. You
can have a meal in one of the small
restaurants or pubs. There are some nice
boutiques and shops, not too expensive. And
at the outskirts of the centre you have
McDonalds and many big department stores
where you really can find everything you can
imagine. At lower prices than in the cities
for example.
Louis and Marianne have already welcomed
new guests in their flats and all of them
were very satisfied. Their new home is
situated in a quite street near the centre,
just opposite restaurant Krokant and Smoske
and a beautiful clothes boutique Domino.
Not too far from Maldegem, you can have
excursions in Bruges. Bruges is a medieval
city near the coast of Zeebruges. All the
possible has been done to maintain the
origins of the small city, the narrow roads,
the little houses and the huge buildings:
belfry, cathedrals, churches, museums, the
imposing town hall the magnificent facades
of the centre of the city.
There are narrow little roads, romantic
little squares, hundreds of small
restaurants and pubs. Groups of museums are
visited by numerous tourists from all over
the world: Groeninge and Arentshuis.
Forum, Concertgebouw are for people who love
art and music.
Gruuthuuze, the museum of archaeology, the
Hospital museum near Our Lady’s Church. The
Diamond museum, the Brewery (1 000
different kinds of beer in Belgium) and last
not but least the Chocolate Museum are worth
visiting. And so many other museums.
The North sea with Knokke, Knokke-Zoute,
Heist (fishmongers) Zeebrugge and its modern
port, Blankenberge till Ostend, the queen of
the coast are attractive towns at the
seaside for a daytrip..
For a huge lunch or dinner you can go to the
medieval villages of Damme or Lissewege,
the white village with the church without
tower (very exceptional here). Very often
exhibitions of art or other events take
place in one of all these little points of
interest in Flanders.
For those who want to do one more
country, Maldegem near Bruges is five
minutes from the Netherlands, and 15 minutes
further on you can stroll in Sluis, a
medieval little town, totally different from
places in Flanders. The food is gorgeous and
the shops are small and attractive. The
people are warm-hearted towards tourists. |
