Ghent - Blogabond

I didn't really get my head round Ghent, partly because I was ill, partly because I didn't spend enough time there. It's a funny city: if I was going to buy a house in Belgium, this would be the place, because it seems to be on the cusp between being a run down partly historic city and being the Manchester of Belgium. It's got history...maybe it's as nice as Bruges...it's got bars and student life, and modernity...and yet it's neither faceless like Brussels, nor defined by history.

And it definitely can't be seen in a day and a half! Not if you really want to understand it.

A quick tram in from the station got me to the main square: usual stuff, cathedral, belfort, really fancy buildings...

Here's the belfort, which I went up. I got in the way of a rather fast moving bunch of German tourists with a stroppy guide at the top. Personally, if I see someone enjoying the view, I wait until they have finished...not this guide. Anyway, it does give a very good view of a very big city.

And Ghent also has the most amazing hostel...it's brilliant! Right in the centre (2 minutes from everything), with a view you'd pay a lot of money for, modern clean rooms with only 4 beds a room, and a very nice breakfast the next day. Friendly staff too. These are views from the bedroom window.

Just round the corner, well a couple of corners, there's the design museum.

Quite dramatic, and it's pretty good inside too- I liked these art deco rooms.

And just round the corner again (lots of corners!), there's the famous Castle Gravensteen, which is pretty dramatic.

There are some stunning canals about as well: I didn't take the classic views, so you get these slightly less good ones instead.

In the evening, I found a particularly snooty Italo-Belgian restaraunt near the Brabantdam...the waiter clearly didn't want me there :-) It was very average, he had nothing to be snooty about.

written by

martin_b on July 1, 2007 from Gent, Belgium

from the travel blog: 10 days in Belgium

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