Ghent, Belgium

On Sunday we decided to go to Ghent on the way home from Bruges. Jim raced bikes for a few summers and lived in Ghent, Belgium. Reliving his glory days, (if living in squalor and racing bikes in the rain can be considered glory days) Jim wanted to do a drive by of the ramshackle apartment he lived in for those two summers. Not surprisingly, Jim found the street where he lived with our GPS system, but didn’t recognize any of the apartments. Shocker!

Since we were already there, we decided to check out the center of town. Jim kept trying to manage my expectations so much so that I was expecting a very industrial, ugly city. I thought Ghent was really pretty charming. The downtown area has canals running through it with huge churches, a castle from the 1100s and a belfry.

We walked through downtown looking for a place for lunch before checking out some of the sights. After getting a few Croque Monsiurs, we visited St. Nicholas’ Church which is one of the oldest landmarks in Ghent.

We next visited the Gravensteen castle which was built in the 1100s. Unlike a lot of other castles we have seen, it is right in the middle of downtown surrounded by shops and restaurants. For the most part, the rooms were empty except for a few that showcased instruments of torture and weaponry. It was recently restored so before the late 80s had been used as a prison, a factory, a courthouse and finally had houses built in the area, using some the old stones. The tour was pretty easy to follow, but didn’t provide all that much information. Every other room seemed to be used for torture. I’m glad I didn’t live in back then.

It was funny to see the signs saying no food allowed or in this case no ice cream. I think in the US the no food or drink allowed signs are of a McDonalds happy meal - soda, fries and a burger.

I enjoyed my day in Ghent and would like to go back in the summer. It seemed to be pretty free from the swarms of tourists that we saw in Bruges.