HandS Travel

Our final stop on our trip was in Ghent, Belgium.  We had heard about Brussells not being all its cracked up to be, and that Brugges is cool, but very busy, so we chose neither, settling on Ghent.  Boy were we happy with our choice when we got to our hotel and swore we were driving through a fairy tale…

This town is one of the most beautiful cities we have ever been to, rivaling Prague from last year.  Ghent is a medieval town that used to be primararily a manufacturer of textiles.  We were not sure what language was spoke, but the nice man at our hotel said Flemish/Flanders (Ghent being in the Flanders area).  After a quick check in we decided to take a walk around…We stepped out of our hotel and we were greeted by a georgeous scene of fantastic buildings reflecting on a perfectly still canal.  This being Easter weekend, there was barely anyone there, it was amazing!  We decided to take a walk-about and see on the pretty sites.  We were just flabbergasted the entire time.  Although there was quite a bit of construction going on in the off season, it was still, just amazing!!!

The most notable landmarks in the town were the three medieval towers overlooking the town. The largest of which was Saint Bavo Cathedral, consecrated in 942.  I’d say it was large and very brick if I had to describe it.  On the inside were some unique decorations, The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb & 22 altars & friezes near the altar.  The next tower was the Belfry of Ghent, a tower that has been used primarily as a bell tower for time keeping, but also as a fortified watchtower.  It has stood here since 1380.  The next day we would make our way to the top (all stairs) to see the inner workings of the clock and see some sky high views.  The last tower belongs to Saint Nicholas’ Church. This church was started in the early 1200′s and was quite nice, as most churches are, not much of note.  That was our main walking tour for the first night.  We returned back to the hotel and people watched along the river front for a while.

Ghent398 pictures

The next day we went for a boat ride on the Leie river, figuring that would be the best way to see some of the many sites in the canal town.  It was a fun ride with a good tour guide, we saw a few places we wanted to walk back to for a better look.  We went past the Castle of the Counts, Foklore Museum, old Post Office, St. Michael’s Church and Bridge, tour guide could be in 4 languages but ours was given in 3 (German, English, Flemish), new bridge built in 2000 with 4 statues.

All in all it was a fun day, some further walking put us past one of the cutest little toy stores we’ve ever seen, some great people watching (our favorite was a little boy all dressed up like a preppy boy and a number on his tie (42)).  For food we ate at an Irish Pub and of course ate many Belgium Waffles…The waffles were like heaven!!!!  They had granualted sugar in the batter and it made for a great texture and taste.  We can hardly wait to eat them again.