The Ghent Adventure

Ooops,  I always have the greatest of intentions to post blogs but was a bit lazy the last couple of weeks.  Or, at least, occupied by other things.  We did have a great adventure the other weekend that I thought I should share.  We decided to nip over to Belgium.  I say nip deliberately because a lot of people make it into a day trip.  We could have done that but decided we wanted to spend a bit more time and have a more relaxing visit.  The train goes directly to Antwerp from The Hague.  It's apparently one of the most beautiful stations - I can attest that it's a lovely site on it's own.

Time goes by so quickly on the trains.  I haven't figured out why it seems so much faster than driving even when you go on the more regional trains that stop more often.  For Kyle it's because he takes the opportunity to nap.

Our destination was Ghent, Belgium mostly because I'd wanted to see the Ghent Altarpiece ever since taking an Art history class during my undergrad days.  But Ghent itself is extremely cool and I think I'd like to go back.  As soon as we stowed our bags off we went to find the tourist info booth.   We did eventually make it there but got waylaid by some fabulous scenery.

St Micheal's Bridge is apparently the most famous in Ghent, justifiably so, as you can spend hours just looking at the architecture and watching the boats go by on the canals.

We almost made it to the tourist info when we stumbled across a REAL castle.  

Yes, a moat and a dungeon and everything!!!  I was super excited (and so was Kyle even though he made fun of me:  "A REAL castle, as opposed to an imaginary one Jo?").  So, we decided to tour the castle immediately.  

Through the entrance way

Full of funny little stairwells like this

Kyle walking around the castle walls

Me sitting in a window seat 

On the top of the castle

So this castle was originally started in about 900 AD and then kept getting added on over the next 600 or so years.  It was for a long while the town courts and then became a textile factory.  Then, interestingly enough became student housing up until around the 1930s when people got interested in restoring it.  Kyle and I took a million pictures here (except apparently not of the dungeon) which is kind of nutty I know, especially for us but how often do you get to tour a REAL castle?  After that we had to have a food break.  Fortunately for Kyle, one of Ghent's specialities is All-you-can-eat Ribs.

We did eventually make it to the tourist info place (in case you were wondering).  The next day we spent wandering around the medieval parts of Ghent.  To be honest, we were mostly in old churches. We felt it was rude to take pictures (unlike MANY other tourists) when there are clearly signs in all three languages (English, French and Flemish/Dutch) asking you not to take pictures.   So that's my excuse for not having many pictures.  We also went on a little canal boat ride and, hmmm, well the pictures are highly unflattering (worse than usual even for Kyle and myself who are notoriously un-photogenic).  Our favourite site of all, however, was the site of the ruins of a 6th century abbey.  It was originally founded by the first missionary who came to preach to the heathen in what is now Belgium.  It was very peaceful and quiet and since Kyle and I never seem to tire of old buildings, it was a lovely place to explore.

  Incidentally I did get to see the Ghent Altarpiece.  (A bit of a rant:  No photos allowed of course but really, I don't understand why people take pictures of famous artwork anyway.  It's not like their pathetic camera is going to give you a better shot than what's available from professional photographers on the internet anyway.  Even if they have a very expensive camera, it's likely still not going to be as good.  For instance - we were also in the Maurithuis museum this week (Dutch Royal Art Collection) where people kept taking pictures of Vermeer's "The Girl with a Pearl Earring".  Why?!  I can see if they took a picture with someone in it to prove they'd been there but they never seem to - just the painting itself.  It's so odd to me. OK, rant done)  If you want to see really cool digital images of the Ghent Altarpiece Click here.   This is very neat but still not as good as the real thing.  The colours are glorious and the detail is breathtaking.