Ghent
At the train station we caught tram #1, which took us up near the Korenmarkt.
We went up to St. Michael's Bridge next,
then going up the Belfry (there was an elevator) for views.
Behind the Belfry, there was Sint-Baafsplein,
then on to St. Bavos.
Back on the walk,
which continued up through Graffitistraat,
then up through Vrijdagmarkt
(with a side trip up Baudelostraat to see some houses with extra pretty gables).
Up across the Leie River,
then along the river,
until we reached the Castle of the Counts. This castle, built in 1180, was built to intimidate the locals.
We went in and walked along the walls for a bit.
(the chapel)
Pretty views down into town.
We looked down into our next stop, Sint-Veerleplein, with its fancy entrance to the Oude Vismijn (Old Fishmarket).
Next down to the square, with a stop for a Castle-side lunch.
We ended the big circle we were making by heading through Groetenmarkt Square,
(long Butcher's Hall)
Next we crossed over the St. Michael's Bridge (same bridge from earlier this morning)
and went down to the other bank of the river,
before heading back to the Korenmarkt, our very first stop, is anchored by St. Nicholas.
It had been closed earlier, but we were able to take a look inside before leaving.
(Some local art on display)
Brussels
A quick train ride, and back to Brussels. Just a bit about the station. On our second to last day, after the Louvain trip, we discovered a "secret entrance" very close to our hotel behind a smurf statue. We were quite proud of ourselves for discovering it, and it make today's day trip extra easy.
We came out onto Agora Square, right near the hotel
We decided we just had to get one last Belgium waffle (when in Belgium!) so headed out to a popular place recommended by Rick Steves, Maison Dandoy.
(yes, that was the line to enter)
(We tried the Brussel's style waffle, lighter than the liege waffle with its rounded edges and extra sugar)
Of course, the Maison Dandoy wasn't far from the Grand Place (sigh).
We had dinner again on this square (surprise, surprise since I loved it so and it was so close to the hotel). This time we ate in a cellar!
(Waterzooi, a creamy soup with chicken popular in Ghent--I figure appropriate for today)
(Yes, that is our waiter judging us.)
The square this night was my favorite off all our days here.
(Panorama taken with cell phone--I was pretty impressed! I'm pretty sure Katherine had to help me figure out how to do it)
So pretty!
Looking back on Ghent makes me a little sad because I was definitely tired and touristed-out by this point, and I feel like I would have really really loved this town a la Delft if we'd visited it earlier in the trip. Oh well. Can't visit everything while fresh and starry-eyed! :-P. Ironically, I took some of my favorite photos from the trip on this day, haha.
ReplyDelete• I think this was the daytrip with the train confusion, wasn't it? Where we dashed back and forth from platform to platform as different well-meaning people told us which train to take, and we ended up sitting separately for at least part of the ride to Ghent. Wasn't that a thing that happened?
• Trams. I would never have survived the public transportation by myself.
• Photo No. 4 is pretty and ~atmospheric~ with the reflections and the sky, etc. V. nice! I think this was at the end of the Graslei, which was the one spot that I wanted to see most in Ghent and evidently we literally walked directly there after arriving but because we saw it at a different angle than I'd seen in photos I didn't realize it and therefore was massively confused and disoriented for 99% of the day as a result. Whee! Good times.
• Elevators in all tall things would really make our lives a lot easier, haha. :-P.
• Shockingly, the Graffitistraat was one of my highlights for the day.
• All of these photos are really nice. Almost Bruges-esque.
• I *LOVEEEEE* Photo No. 49. And No. 52, but I like No. 49 a teensy bit better.
• OOH and alos No. 53 with the tables! At least one of these needs to make the commemorative wall!
• I think we ordered the same thing for lunch because I remember struggling to eat the nuts and the rest of the sandwich simultaneously. It was tasty, though (obviously).
• Photo No. 58 is also really good.
• "Next we crossed over the St. Michael's Bridge (same bridge from earlier this morning." LOL, this was the moment that you finally-- with Herculean effort-- got across to idiotic me that we'd been here before. It was generous of you to forego publicly shaming me in the post, but I'll shame myself here in the comments!
• LOL at that ridiculous smurf statue.
• Standing in that giant waffle line was completely worth it for the delicious waffle-y payoff. I think mine had chocolate ice cream and strawberries. Ugh, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.
• Tonight's restaurant was really nice, if I'm remembering correctly. I have no memory of what I ate, but I do remember thinking that we'd made a good choice when we were leaving.
• We definitely bought one last round of chocolates before heading back to the hotel. (Not pictured. :-P.)
• OMG, your photos of rainbow-y Grand Place turned out so great! The ultimate payoff for actually learning how to use the professional settings on your fancy camera! I know I don't need to tell you to put one of these on the wall. :-P.
Sigh. Remember when we used to go places in the world? That was fun. I miss doing that. We should do that again someday.