Blogs from Gent, East Flanders, Belgium, Europe - page 3

We are currently on the train from Ghent, Belgium to Brugges which will be a short half hour trip. The last 2 days in Ghent have been alright – a big adjustment from the laid back Mediterranean lifestyle we had become accustomed to! After about 7 hours of travel (train, train, bus, plane) we arrived in Brussels. It was pleasant to see small dogs in the airport! Then we discovered there is a dog show in Brussels this weekend! We took a train to Ghent which was our home for the next 2 nights. It certainly is……different. The buildings and old city itself is certainly Northern European – dark brick buildings and tall imposing dark cathedrals/churches. The biggest difference you can see are the people around you. Northern Europeans can be……larger than their Mediterranean counterparts. However, ... read more

We booked a very early train this morning, so we were out of the hotel by 8am. The train station was only 1 block away. We had enough time for a posh tea service on a silver tray in the station before boarding our train to Ghent. On the train, we discovered that dogs rule in this area of Europe. The sweetest Dalmatian boarded the train and was quite content to ride in the aisle and get pets from other passengers. I didn't want to stalk him, but took a quick snap with my phone for proof! The train took us thru Brussels where we had a quick change of trains. Upon arriving in Ghent, we immediately knew we were in a college town. We found a Starbucks in the train station and the biggest bike ... read more

Saturday 1 August 2015 Isn't Belgium a wonderful place, especially on a sunny summer day. Our second fine day in a row and all is looking good for a few days more. Today we drive south to the city of Ghent (local spelling Gent). Driving south along the highway traffic heading north is almost at a standstill. In England we experienced "black Friday", in France today was "black Saturday ". Everyone was heading away on their summer holiday. Later in the day a news item showed gridlock on the roads in the Rhone Valley. Ghent is the capital of the region, unlike Bruges the buildings represent the commercial heart of the region. A light rail traverses the city. Where it runs through the many pedestrian spaces there appears to be many close calls between tram and ... read more

We didn't want to miss the opportunity to experience more history on our trip. We stayed in a scenic village near the city of Gent, where our B&B hosts started things off on a high note by offering everyone local beverages, Dad indulged himself in some local brew. Everyone enjoyed this introduction to the new country. After our introductions we had a nice dinner in the city of Gent but wanted to get a good nights sleep after the long day of travel. After waking up and enjoying a nice breakfast and garden tour, we made our way to the Flanders Fields Museum in the historic town of Ypres. The museum was a wealth of information not only about the battle of Ypres but the whole of World War I. On top of this, you were ... read more

Ghent (Gent) in Belgium Sunday 3 November 2013 As our GPS saw the best way to get to Ypres was through Gent, we decided to change our plans and look around this city of 240,000 people. Wow, what a lovely city. It has a bit of everything – new, old, excellent food, entertainment, history, interesting markets…..but the wind chill factor would have to have been about 1 degree. It was actually 6 degrees out of the wind. Tom and I loaded on the clothes, scarves, gloves, and off we went. Friends who we met on Santorini in Greece, Hazel & Richard, love this city. We tried to catch up with each other but not this time. Fortunately, we had picked up a map from a tourist information desk in Brussels on Ghent so we knew where ... read more