Ghent: Where's the Lamb?

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Early Sunday morning June 7, Don and I picked up and packed up again and took the train from Antwerp to Ghent, a trip of about 50 minutes. The city was very quiet when we arrived at 8 AM, and it was a quick tram ride to the city center to our hotel, the NH Ghent. We have stayed at NH hotels before, and they were very nice, this one is no exception.

Off we went sightseeing around the city, for the next two days. The first day we probably never went more than 7 blocks in any direction, but there is a lot to see in that small area. Ghent, population 250,000, is half the size of Antwerp and double the size of Brugge and combines the quaintness of the former with the hustle bustle of the latter. On Sunday we climbed the bell tower, hit two museums - folklife and design, went for a boat ride on the River Leie, and visited the lamb. The lamb in question is the painting "Adoration of the Mystic Lamb", by Jan Van Eyck, and is located in St. Bavo Cathedral. It is is one of the most famous paintings of its era (1400's), and Ghent's top attraction. Ever since, we have been asking - where is the lamb?

Monday was more of a wandering around day, poking into stores, stopping for a beer, etc. We did go to one "site", the Gravensteen Castle, built in 1180. It looks just like you would think a castle from then would look like.

We have given Ghent 4.5 stars out of a possible 5 stars.

On Tuesday, June 9, we travelled 30 minutes by train for a daytrip to the small town of Oudenaarde - population 28,000. It was low key - the highlight was a 90 minute guided tour of the beautiful 16th century city hall, which featured classic old tapestries, for which Oudenaarde is well known. The tour had only a handful of people on it - we both agreed that a guided tour with a small group is much, much more rewarding than one with a group of say thirty or forty people. On our return to Ghent we did ask a couple people if they knew where the lamb was. By the way, we are thinking of having lamb chops for dinner.

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