Ghent

The first stop on our little road trip was Ghent, Belgium.  We'd been meaning to check it out on one of our Bruges trips, but after 2 days of gorging on beer, chocolate, fries, and mussels, we were always ready to go home and detox. Plus, we under the assumption that it was smaller than Bruges- a cute town worth stopping by on your way home.  Um, we were wrong.  Ghent is almost twice as big as Bruges.  In fact, in the middle ages, up until the 13th century, Ghent was the second biggest city in Europe.  

The historic center of Ghent is astonishingly beautiful.  Unfortunately, the city was setting up for its annual culture festival, so almost every river, bridge, and street view was marred with tents, wires, signs, fences, and stages.  Still, we were able to enjoy some spectacular scenery. Kathy's room at the hotel had a view of Gravensteen, the Castle of the Counts, and our dinner table had a terrific view of six or seven steeples and towers from the churches in town.  The castle:

The main attraction in Ghent is probably St. Bavo's Cathedral.  The church originated in the 10th century and houses one of the biggest masterpieces of the 15th century: The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb.  The center pulpit is also incredibly ornate.  When traveling through Europe, it's easy too tune out the Giant European Churches as they all start to sort of run together, but St. Bavo's is one that definitely stands out as being worth the visit.  

We also visited the bell tower and the castle, making stops for chocolate and lunch at a little place called 't Stropke (Hangman's Noose) next to Decapitation Bridge.  Yeah.

We probably could have stayed in Ghent another day or two, but we wanted to trade our beer for champagne so we packed up and headed down the road to Reims...