Our love affair with Belgium began when we exited the Sint Pieters train station in Ghent (Gent in Dutch) to the impressive bicycle parking lot. It’s a college town and they’ve worked hard to promote alternative transportation…. How cool is this?!? We started our time by strolling through downtown past Saint Nicholas’ Church, the Stadhuis van Gent (City Hall), to the romantic St. Michael’s bridge, and over the Grasburg bridge.
We couldn’t resist touring the lovely castle, Gravensteen, located in the center of town. What we found was the best audio tour I’ve heard narrated by local comedian Wouter Deprez (So. Very. Entertaining)! We also discovered the dungeons where we were equally horrified and entertained by the bloody history. Of note, the castle has beautiful glass bottle windows, a museum with amazing art, and collections including plate armor and medieval weapons. The tour goes up to the top of the tower for a breathtaking view and wraps around the castle for a beautiful (and moody) photos.
The beer in Belgium is truly amazing. The beer lists are pages long (often bigger than the food menu)! We particularly enjoyed Het Waterhuis aan de Bierkant and trying a number of types including IPA, red, porter, and quickly a favorite, kriek, a sweet fruity cherry beer!
We’ve also found that we have to take care of real life while we travel (given that this is our amazing real life)! We take days off to do laundry, work (finances, insurance, health), plan future travel, blog, and “goo” (our term for video games, board games, reading, relaxing). At Wassalon Elisabethlaan, the laundromat in Ghent, it only took 10 minutes to dry a load (yea commercial dryers)! We also continue to run for exercise (and walk a lot too!). Our favorite place in Ghent to run (and close to our hotel) was the Citadelpark with its sculptures and blooming flowers!!
One place we very much wanted to visit was Bruges (or Brugge in Dutch), so we took a daytrip there. It is all the things written about it… quaint, picturesque, amazing architecture, romantic canals, and the best chocolate shops (I dare you to look at google maps and search “chocolate” just to see how many there really are)! We walked into town from the train station (an easy trip from Ghent). We passed the lovely Church of Our Lady, the Maison Bonbon (it had a red carpet to enter, and the best flower display for Instragram photos), and headed for the Markt (the main square). Afterward, we decided that we needed some snacks (i.e. chocolate). A quick favorite was the chocolate covered marshmallows. They are soft and delicious and I’m still unsure how they keep the textures without any melting. We stopped in at least three chocolate shops for various treats and enjoyed the ones that sold by weight as you could try as many different kinds as your heart desired. Amazing and delicious!
It was a fun rainy day in Bruges, and the canal boat tours had red umbrellas which made the best photos! Given the rain (and cold), we decided to head to the Torture Museum Oude Steen. It was an experience that was terrifying horrific, entertaining, horrific, and informative. One of the entertaining portions is a stock for two arguing people (right front of photo). It is said that for long-term arguments, they would sentence two people to the stocks until they solved their problem(s)! More seriously, the guillotine was invented to make death punishments less painful and quicker (left back in the photo), an improvement over medieval torture. The museum discussed policing, finding criminals, punishment for crimes, and highlighted individual rights . It was very well done, and also intense. From there, we headed to Sint-Salvatorskathedraal (St. Salvator’s Cathedral… it seemed appropriate) with its beautiful windows, alter, and organ. Finally, we headed back to the Markt now that there was blue sky for pretty photos! We ended our Bruges trip with a walk back to the train and discovered Minnewater Lake (the Lake of Love) with the picturesque Kasteel Minnewater (that’s now a restaurant)! It would be a glorious place for a drink by the lake on a warm day.
Our second daytrip from Ghent was to the coast. We took the train north to Knokke-Heist for a windy cold beach day! We walked to the beach and discovered Belgium’s Beach Cabins which are the decedents of sea bathing when ladies and gentlemen (separately, of course) would use a wheeled cabin to change into bathing attire (an entire dress for the ladies), a horse would pull the cabin into the water, the attendant would lower steps, and they could splash and “bathe” to their hearts content. There are no longer horses and wheels, just cabins that range from a place to change and storage for towels to ones with showers and cooking. Personally, I liked it when the Duinbergen beach where opened up and there were just condos, a sandy beach, and the water (with windmills offshore)! We then took the Coastal Tram to Ostend where we thought to play minigolf. Instead, we discovered Snooker golf at Leopoldpark! It’s an outdoor billiards course with 18 holes, pool cues, and So. Much. Fun!!! Once finished, we walked toward Ostend train station and came across the glorious Sint-Petrus-en-Pauluskerk (Church of St. Peter and St. Paul). We also walked by the marina and saw the Mercator museum ship. We didn’t go in, but if we’re ever in Ostend again, we’d love to see the inside too!
Back in Ghent, we enjoyed a canal tour with Boat in Gent. The tour was fun and in multiple languages (which is nice, you can just catch the next tour). The view from the canals is amazing! We enjoyed the Flemish architecture of the Korenlei and Graslei. The yellow townhouse on the Korenlei is a Guildhall of Unfree Boatmen (from outside Ghent who had to pay a toll and wait), also known as “The Anchor” and has a ship weathervane on top, dolphins on the top tier, and anchors below that. Gorgeous! Note that across the canal on the Graslei is the famous Guildhall of Free Boatmen. We also enjoyed the glorious pictures of the Gravensteen from the canal.
Belgium truly was a delight. What more do you need in life than beer, chocolate, and bicycles?!? How about a video taken during our canal boat tour? Thanks for staying to the end!