Ghent to Amsterdam

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Given the amount of excellent Belgian beer consumed the previous night, I woke up feeling pretty good. It was 0930 when I stirred to life so I had at least had a decent sleep. I'm not sure if it was Ghent that had me feeling so perky or if it was just that I wasn't in Paris any more.

We drove into Ghent and had another look around the magnificent town. It was just as pretty as I'd remembered it, this pleased me as the beer goggles were well and truly on by the time we had caught a taxi home at 0230 earlier that same morning,

Jo, Klara, Elin and I paid a visit to the chocolate shop and we ended up spending EUR13 on the "bit of everything box". Like the waiter and bar staff the night before, our chocolatier was a friendly, helpful, talkative bloke who gave us a history lesson and marital advice amongst chocolate facts and the odd joke.

We went back to the restaurant that gave us such a great meal the previous night and our waiter allowed us to sit outside while they set up for their midday opening. Jo and I both ordered the beef casserole again... and enjoyed it... again.

We would have loved to have spent more time in Ghent but we were booked into an Amsterdam hotel for the next three nights and did not have enough time to see everything. We figured our best bet was to go on a guided river tour, one of the very few tourist oriented attractions in the town. We elected to wait for the next boat to avoid the American students already on board so we set off just after 1300 in a boat with Spanish and Dutch tourists along with the Swedes and ourselves. This proved no problem for our guide who had the three required languages mastered.

I simply can't go on about Ghent too much... it is one of the most beautiful places I have been to and it has not yet been ruined by tourism... it is a University town first so the vibe is great. If you plan on visiting Europe and don't visit Ghent you're doing yourself a disservice. If you go to Paris - don't say I didn't warn you.

By 1500 we all dragged ourselves to the car (against our better judgement) and set the GPS for Amsterdam. Unfortunately it sent us through Antwerp during rush hour so the trip that was only 250 odd kilometres took nearly four hours.

We grabbed pizza and pasta at a very average restaurant near our hotel next to the Ajax Amsterdam ground then took a train into the city for an orientation walk. We stopped at Rock Planet for a drink and walked back thought the outskirts of the red light district that was full of drunken Brits.

It was midnight by the time our heads hit the pillow and we needed to be up early in the morning, The girls wanted to visit Anne Frank's house and the queues were known to be long. We resolved to be in Amsterdam by 0830 the following morning.

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