The best traffic-free bike rides in Wijnendalebos

Rural and rustic. That's how you can safely describe the area around this bicycle and pedestrian bridge over the Coupure.

Beautiful museums in the centre of Koekelare, one of the seasonal workers in the 1950s and one of Käthe Kollwitz.

Nowadays the castle is a luxury hotel/restaurant and conference centre (Restaurant realised in 1990 and hotel built in 1996 by the then organisers of the Rock Torhout festival). On the other side of the Torhout - Oostende road lies the domain of the Wijnendale castle.

The history of 'Domein d' Aertrycke' begins in 1865 when August de Maere, the spiritual father of the port of Zeebrugge, acquired 98 ha of the 'Verloren Kost' domain. In 1869 he had the now centrally located neo-Gothic castle built to a design by the Antwerp architect Joseph Schadde. In 1897 August de Maere, who had in the meantime been elevated to the nobility, was given permission to add d'Aertrycke to his name. With the exception of a short period after the First World War, the domain remained the property of the family. Xavier de Maere, the last owner of the castle, became known as second-in-command of the Belgian South Pole Expedition 1958-1959. After the death of his mother, who was the last of the family to live in the castle, he concluded an agreement with the West Flemish provincial government for the partial opening of the castle domain to the general public. In 2012, the province acquired full ownership and Domein d'Aertrycke became a fully-fledged provincial domain.

The castle De Maere d'Aertrycke is a castle in the Belgian city of Torhout. The neo-Gothic castle was built from 1868 to 1871 by order of August de Maere, the castle is still popularly called De Maeres castle. It is located between the center of Torhout, Wijnendale and Aartrijke. The castle is located in a romantic garden with a large pond, meadows and forests. The domain has a great natural value. Roe deer, Western European hedgehog and the European red squirrel are the mammals that live there. Birds are richly represented with the tufted duck, great spotted woodpecker, moorhen, coot, grebe, jackdaw, nuthatch, tree creeper, finch, blue tit and great tit. There are also amphibians: the brown frog and the common toad.

The Conzett Bridge is a striking pedestrian and bicycle bridge in Bruges, designed by Swiss engineer Jürg Conzett. This bridge, which crosses the ring canal of Bruges, is known for its unique truss construction that looks both modern and functional. Thanks to its slender design and visible steel connections, the Conzett Bridge adds a special architectural element to the Bruges landscape.

Contrary to what is stated in the title of this highlight, the Wullepit mill is not a stone mill, but a wooden mill on a stone base.

Wooden corn windmill, type of post mill on tower house. It is located on a mill hill. The Wullepit mill owes its name to the miller family Wullepit who operated the mill almost continuously between 1805 and 1949. It has a long history, during which its continued existence was seriously threatened several times in the past half century. The Wullepit mill is the oldest mill in Zarren and was built before 1639. From 1725, the same miller lived at the Linde mill for almost fifty years: Nicolaas Decoodt. All later millers at the Linde mill, up until the 20th century, were relatives of this Nico Decoodt. He was the operator and also the owner of the mill, Nicolaas married three times and had 9 children from these 3 marriages, of whom only four reached adulthood. Three of them would play a role in this miller's story. In 1817, after the death of the last son-in-law and more than 45 years after the death of Nicolaas Decoodt, tenant-co-seller Pieter Wullepit became the owner. During the First World War, the mill was destroyed to such an extent that it was impossible to build a new mill with the rubble. Millers through and through, the Wullepits thought they would not be able to make a living without a mill. While others had the rubble of the destroyed mills cleared away for good, they decided to replace their destroyed mill, especially since their son Arthur, who had returned from the war as a severely mutilated man - he lost a leg. He would have had difficulty doing other work. Through the intervention of Alfred Ronse, a mill expert from Gistel who advocated the re-establishment of windmills after the First World War, an existing post mill was purchased in Zerkegem in 1923. The colossus was transported to Zarren by horse-drawn carriage. Arthur Wullepit, who remained unmarried and was the actual miller, died in 1972. His brother Omer Wullepit was more of a farmer. He was born in Zarren in 1892 and died in February 1980 at the age of 88. The Weekbode wrote on 22 February 1980: "Zarren's last miller has gone with his grain to the Lord". In 1971, the municipality of Zarren acquired the mill for one symbolic franc with the promise to restore it. Political wrangling repeatedly caused the restoration to be postponed. For a while it looked as if the mill would be transferred to the Open Air Museum in Bokrijk, or to the Bruges city walls, and even that its classification as a protected monument would be lifted. It is Wullepitmolen vzw, which - with material support from the municipality - finally carried out the necessary maintenance work in 1991 and campaigned for the Province of West Flanders to purchase the mill from the municipality in 1994. The restoration was finally carried out between 1996 and 2000. Since then, five volunteer millers from the Wullepitmolen vzw have been working the Wullepitmolen at least every 1st Sunday of the month from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. from April to September (also the fourth Sunday if there is sufficient wind) and on special mill days from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. In 2017, the mill was finally transferred back to the municipality of Kortemark. Due to the deteriorated technical condition, a new restoration took place from 2021 to 2023. Source: Molenecho’s