Short: An hour in Zeebrugge

2-3 December 2025:

I was working at Ostend Airport for 2 days and the first day I left at 3 am to get there in time so at the end of the day at 5.30pm I was so tired that I didn't go out anymore after work, I went straight to my AirBNB to eat and sleep.

The next day I only had to work a few hours and by noon I was able to go out before returning home so I decided to pass by Zeebrugge. First of all I went to see if there was anything interesting at the viewpoint near the Naval base, The Belgica was still there and the Dutch M860 Schiedam. I had a good view on the car carrier Oceanus Highway as well.

I went back towards the old Westhinder 2 lightship that had been sitting empty for years with protective barriers around it, to my surprise these barriers had been removed and the pit where the rudder and propeller are sitting had been cleaned, the ship seems to be part of the redevelopment of this area where there used to be a small parking and the marketsquare, now the parking has been closed for cars and the marketsquare is grass with new plantations and walking paths along with new floodprotections in place. The lightship is just a monument apparently with no sign of anything planned to open it up or something. At least she is being taken care of at the moment.

Next I went to the cruise ship viewpoint and the bridge to have a view at the MSC Poesia and Ambition visiting Zeebrugge. MSC Poesia is a regular visitor nowadays and Ambition was just fresh out of dry dock, she is a regular as well in Belgium with Antwerp or Zeebrugge often being on her itinerary.

I went back home as I had to work the next as well and these 2 days at 2 hours from home were a bit exhausting.