The day for the trip to Ghent was just gorgeous! Spectacular weather and warm with it. In fact, I even got a little sunburnt! Anyway, after a breakfast of bread and chevre from my supplies I'd bought last night, I got the train Ghent. The return journey cost about 12.50 Euro or so. Discounts only apply on weekends and the weekly go-anywhere-ticket would have cost more than paying full price and half price for 2 day trips on the weekend...
I got into Ghent around 10. I was disappointed that there wasn't any sort of Information centre around the station and it wasn't obvious which way to go. There was a map outside, but it wasn't very helpful. Unless you knew what you were looking for, anyway. Fortunately, I had the map on my phone so I used that. What was not so good is that I was reading it wrong. What I thought was a suggested tour marked on the map was just suburb demarcation and tram lines. Ah well....I got to see a long more of Ghent than I would otherwise have done.
I didn't come past any information centres anywhere, so I gave up and stopped at the Sandton Hotel (very nice!) and asked for a map, which happened to be identical to the one I had downloaded to my phone....
Ghent appears to be a much more modern city compared to Bruges. At least in the outskirts of the centre which was my introduction to Ghent:
I peeked into a converted church:
There was a lot of construction work going on right through Ghent. Excavations everywhere and lots of noise:
But there was also the odd stand of trees and people with cute flowerboxes in their windows:
I finally got to see some of the actual sites with the Rabot (an old city gate, I assume):
And there were the ubiquitous tour boats yet again…The Prinsenhof sounded promising, only it was yet another construction site which appeared to be supervised by a statue:
I wandered further down the Liege river/canal towards the city centre. There were people fishing. I don't know that I'd necessarily eat anything caught there!:
Lots of willow trees lined the river opposite the old Augustine Monastery:
I continued onwards towards the centre where the only Information centre appeared to be:
The old Castle of Counts seemed to be more ruin than anything else, so didn't bother to go in. Photographed the outside a little though:
And St Veerle Square just across from it:
I finally got my Information centre and a better map. From there I could go underneath and walk along the river's edge on the side of the building:
There were a few bridges interconnecting different parts of the centre, so I just wandered about and took photos (I know, you're shocked):
I decided to have a second breakfast, since the coffee I'd had at the train station was disgusting. This second breakfast consisted of a croissant, a glass of orange juice and a coffee for the price of 7.50 Euro. I could certainly have got it cheaper elsewhere, but I wanted the chance to sit down and plan out my sight-seeing, since I'd already done more than enough walking!
I started back off, walking half way across the bridge and then decided to walk back to the Korenlei side and photograph both sides from there:
At the far end, filming was going on - probably for a video. They weren't very good that I could tell! Maybe it’s someone famous?
I walked further up, onto the bridge, for some more pictures of the area:
and then doubled back to get pictures of St Michael's Church which was right by the bridge on the Korenlei side. Unfortunately, there was construction work going on around it, and it was closed:
I walked around the corner to see the Pand - I think it was some sort of cloisters belonging to the church once, but it's now a university campus:
Then back across the bridge to the other side to see the Graslei Buildings from the front (or is it back?) and St Nicholas, all on the Kleine Turkie (little Turkey) square:
I checked out the interior of St Nicholas Church with its massive Altar (you can see the steel cables holding it upright in one picture:
I continued down the main street past the old Mason's Hall with its funny statues on the gables:
Next was the Belfry, which I didn't bother going into though I snapped a pic from the doorway:
St Bavo's square had some pretty buildings on it:
And then the famous St Bavo's cathedral which had "The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb" painting which they wanted 4 Euro to look at. I looked at a picture of it they had in one of the little chapels. The cathedral was quite dark inside:
They had a contemporary art show inside as well, which was quite unusual. Some of the exhibits were weird and some amusing (the black painting just has NADA at the top instead of a painting of Jesus with INRI at the top):
Back out to St Bavo's Square and then onwards:
City Hall itself was a massive construction site, though one of its sides was unaffected (so far!) and I took some nice photos there:
Next stop was the Vrijdagmarkt (Friday Market Square) next to St James. Fortunately it was Thursday and thus no market, but St James itself was closed. There was an interesting antique shop open, though:
I wandered around the streets here for a bit with no specific goal in mind and came across this interesting art:
And past some nice architecture:
I stopped for a bite to eat, because it was way past lunch time and hot. I had a bread roll and a canned cold drink called Tao which was green tea and gingko and other things, but sparkling and not too sweet. Very nice actually, for a hot day. Once I'd eaten, I made use of the cool and tables to plan the rest of my time in Ghent.
I headed due south through the historic centre towards the Kouter area fringed by the Opera on one side and a few other pretty buildings:
There was a young couple sitting on a balcony enjoying a glass of wine and people watching in the heat. How I envied them!:
I plodded on in the direction of St Peter's, past another canal and then some more nice buildings in the Kunstenkwartier (Arts Quarter).
St Peter's Square is also surrounded by nice old buildings, mostly used as museums and pubs:
The church itself was quite pretty especially with the domes and the lovely wrought ironwork:
I didn't have anything else on the agenda and it was hot and I was sweaty and in need of a drink, so I stopped at a pub across from the church and had a beer. With a view. Belgium is famous for its beer so all part of the experience ;-) This was my view:
I continued down the same street I'd been on since it was the one that would take me back to the station. People were setting up for a street party that night...if I was 25 years younger I might've been tempted to hang around:
The street party led me towards Citadelpark, which was a nice green oasis in the heat:
And then it was just a few minutes to the station, though I couldn't believe the number of bicycles in the streets by the station. I thought I'd seen a lot in China, but this...and that's only a small section. There was a square across from the station that was also a huge bicycle parking-lot:
The station itself (Gent-St-Pieters) was also beautiful:
On the train ride back, I'd had the vague idea of buying some more stuff to put on my bread for brekky and then going out for dinner....but I was too lazy and just bought myself a nice seafood salad for half price while I was buying my chevre. I had a cool shower and moisturised my sunburn(!) and had the salad for dinner and worked on my blog for a while…
