“Here’s a secret within a secret: Ghent might just be the best European city you’ve never thought of visiting, in a country that continues to be criminally overlooked. Ghent hides away in the middle of Belgium’s big three – Brussels, Bruges and Antwerp. Most Belgium-bound visitors rushing between these see nothing more than the stately fortifications of Ghent’s St Pieter’s Station.” – Lonely Planet 10 places to visit in 2011.
So, I had been working on the ReVeaLD advanced-search platform. During the first week of May, I had to visit Belgium to attend a couple of review meetings where I would be presenting my research. I had to make a short detour to Ghent, and I was supposed to stay there for the first few days for one of the meetings. Luckily I had a weekend in Ghent, before I went to Brussels, where I had the next set of meetings. I intended to thoroughly explore Ghent – a city steeped in the rich native medieval history, and which occupied the 7th place in the top 10 travel destinations of 2011 by Lonely Planet.
After the first two days of hectic meetings, I was looking forward to the weekend, and I had my travel itinerary sketched out with some help from their tourism site. Unlike my last trip, I was not able to plot the popular tourist destinations on a Google Map, before coming to Ghent, due to the lack of time and extreme hastiness to cater to the needs of the meetings. Luckily, my hotel was located right smack down in the middle of the city (Ibis Gent Centrum, St. Baafs Kathedraal), with a beautiful view of the Belfry and St. Nicholas” Church from my window (upper-top-left), and the sound of the tolling of bells in the late midnight. I was also provided by a tourist guide, by the receptionist with a user-friendly map.
After completing a presentation for the next meeting in the early morning and managing a heavy morning breakfast in the hotel, I embarked on my journey to explore the city at 10am. I visited the St. Bavo”s Cathedral (St. Baafs Kathedraal) as the first stop (upper-top-right). The nearest to my hotel of stay, it was an impressive Gothic Cathedral (maybe due to the height), which houses numerous art and sculpture masterpieces – from the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb (or Ghent Altarpiece – considered to be one of the most absolute masterpieces of the Renaissance Period), Rubens masterpiece of St. Bavo enters the Convent at Ghent, tombs of the Ghent Bishops,the baroque high altar and the rococo pulpit.
I was not sure, if I was allowed to take pictures once inside the Cathedral – the sign strictly prohibited it, whereas it was natural to find tourists taking snapshots using a DSLR. I sat down for around an hour, and it offered the best peace of mind and tranquility I was looking for, after a few hectic work nights.
Nearby, in the center of St. Baafsplein Square is the majestic and historical Royal Dutch Theatre, located right in between the Belfry and St. Baaf Kathedraal. On a lucky day, you could enjoy classic and contemporary plays, but I had much ground to cover, so I just glimpsed from the outside. Opposite to the Theatre, was a really beautiful fountain, and a few sitting benches – a perfect spot for couples with children (well they were occupied running around in the square). Moving onto the second tower, the Belfry is the middle tower of the three towers (lower-top-left), with a golden dragon, perched on its 95-metres top, guarding the city of Ghent since 1938. It is the symbol of Ghent”s independence, and is listed under the World Heritage Sites of UNESCO. Down the streets, underneath the Belfry, are situated various delightful restaurants, and I was also able to see some really sturdy horses providing carriage rides to enthusiasts (lower-top-right).
On the other side of the Belfry, after crossing the streets, I came across the City Pavilion, a new architectural construction (upper-middle-left), with a notable roof design – and the distinct use of wood, glass and concrete. On a normal day, one could see both the natives and the tourists coming over to enjoy the sun, and reading a book, whilst laid on the grass underneath the Pavilion, a concert or an orchestra playing nearby. The design of the entire place is very remarkable with beautiful views of the Belfry on one side and St. Nicholas” Church on the other side. The Pavilion itself is raised a bit above ground (on a hillock), and underneath there is the ‘Belfort Stadscafé en Stadsrestaurant’ – A bar-cum-restaurant-cum-cafe, sections of which are open 24×7- facing which is a small albeit magnificent park, a perfect place to spend an entire day in itself. Sitting there, one could not help but notice the modern day trams moving up and down the adjoining streets, a perfect confluence of medieval architecture with modern transportation. I was able to capture some really beautiful pictures surrounding these places, and somehow, once again, I was able to transcend my imagination to roam fairy lands with castles and trains (The Star Wars Analogy of Naboo) (middle-large).
I spent some time there till 1pm, in the noon – one could literally get lost in the calm surroundings, but someone like me who was running on the clock, with still many things to do, it was really essential for me to actually keep track of the time. I started moving on, down on my way to the famous Graslei. On the way, I was able to view The Masons” Guild House – with some dancers perched on the spikes on the very top (lower-middle-left), the Gothic Town Hall (upper-middle-right) and the various eateries all the way down – the delicious aromas trying to fill the nostrils, and luring you in. I had my own reasons not to fall prey to my temptations and cravings (discussed below) and went down to St. Michael”s Bridge, locate over the RIver Lys (or Leie). This is the single-most unique place in Ghent, and of all the captivating places with multiple attractions on either sides (I gave many references), this one definitely takes the cherry. On the left side of the bridge, you can see the St. Michael”s Church – once the tallest tower, but now shadowed by the Three Towers (lower-middle-right), which are visualized in a straight line on the opposite side of the bridge (apparently the only place where you can see them in straight line). Down the bridge, you can see the magnificent Graslei, the quay located on the right side of the river, and the Korenlei, located on the left side. Cited as the best place in Ghent to spend the day, you could see the natives getting tanned in the sun resting on the grass, or having a lunch in one of the river side restaurants, or jumping on the occasional boat ride on the river (actual jumping if one is truly drunk). The bridge was somewhat a bit too crowded for my taste, making it real difficult to actually stand there for long – with many tourists, and you needed to be careful not to jump down the narrow footpath and be on the track of the trams.
I proceeded to the Graslei, making a mental note to bring a book down the next day, when there was some more sunlight – the Galway weather had followed me to Ghent on that day, I was lucky as the next day was clear (bottom-large) – and also visiting it in the night. As you might have predicted, the very next thing I did was hop on one of the boats myself – an open wooden automatic – with drinks/cocktails in the center. For, all the remaining tourist attractions could have well been witnessed whilst sitting on the boat, and I would have accomplished ”one of the todos” of Ghent. It was fairly cheap (7 €), and even though we had to wait for more passengers (the boat was not even half-full when the guy decided to finally take it out), it was worth it – you could have the occasional waving (or the booing) as the other boats drifted by. The 45 minutes of the boat ride, was one of the best time, I ever had in the city – The guy who was actually maneuvering the boat, was providing a commentary in three languages (it was fun – he might have grumbled a bit, as I did not understand either Dutch or German, and there was no one common language of communication).
The boat ride allowed one to bear witness to the great medieval architecture (upper-bottom-left), donning the city, on the either side of the river banks – the Guild Houses of the Grain Weighers, the Free Sailors, the Butcher”s markets, the old post office, the granaries, Castle of the Counts (or Graveensteen, from the commentary, I understood – it has an inbuilt custom designed torture chamber, yet marriages are organized in this monument – quite the irony), the Ghent University (or the back of it as was seen) and all the way down to the Rabot (I was so excited in seeing this, but considering it pretty far away from the city center, I believed I would have missed it) (upper-bottom-right). You could see the turtles, ducks and swans having their own sweet time drifting across the river. The return journey was somewhat a bit quieter, and I was feeling really drowsy due to the cool wind, and the gentle rocking of the boat (makes you feel like a kid).
After the boat ride, I decided to see the Castle of the Counts (lower-bottom-left), once again, from the outside over the bridge, bristled across the KorenMarkt (there were some beautiful flower gardens situated here), and then stopped across a couple of shops – I was feeling a bit hungry, not having eaten anything since breakfast, so I decided to have a cup of Cappucino and a Tiramisu Cake in a local cafe, and then came across a beautiful linen and wool shop – I decided to buy a scarf I saw from outside the shop, for my mother.
Once back on the Korenlei, I crossed the bridge, and saw the towers of St. Jacobskerk far away from the street. I had read about the local flea market held every weekend, but like in Athens, I decided to once again skip it as I was so tired. I started my way back to St. Baafs Kaathedral, the start of my journey. It was already after 4pm, by the time I completed all this, and I was getting really hungry by all the travelling. I had decided to skip lunch, the reason for which has been described later, and I had to complete some shopping before heading to dinner. I decided to stop near a couple of confectionery and artifacts shops on my way back to the hotel – I wanted to purchase a few boxes of assorted Belgian chocolates, it being the local specialty and knowing I may or may not get such time in Brussels to shop. I also purchased a customary frame – made from medieval stone (unlike the white marble stone of Athens) engraved with the Three Towers Skyline. I finally made my way back to the hotel room.
Ghent has been described as an organic paradise for vegetarians, and I intended to take full advantage of this fact (well, me being a pure vegetarian, there are so few options elsewhere). After our meeting, the previous day, me and a couple of colleagues who had visited along with me, had dined in one of the restaurant cafes located along Graslei. I had ordered a Vegetarian Lasagne with Cream and Bread (or, vegetarische lasagne met room en brood – It was getting really interesting translating the Dutch menu to English once you get the hang of it) and Ommegang, a local brewed beer (reminded me of an article mentioning Game of Thrones and this ale). I had kept my expectations at rock bottom, as my previous experiences at Vegetarian Lasagne had been horrible (they are never meant to be vegetarian). However the vegetables dipped in the rich creamy tomato sauce, coupled with extremely thick cheese crust on the top, proved me wrong, making it the best Lasagne I ever had in my life. For the next day, I spotted out this restaurant (Komkommertijd), which served all-you-can-eat Vegan Buffet on Saturday evenings, and I decided to dine there on that day. Usually, when it comes to all-you-can-eat vegetarian buffets in Ireland, I had to travel all the way to Dublin to Moore Street, where there are several restaurants which serve delicious Indian/Chinese lunch buffets – which has several vegetarian components. Tired of the traditional oily gravies and Chinese noodles, I was looking forward to this – in anticipation for which I decided to skip my lunch, to enjoy the dinner to its fullest. And I was not disappointed, the menu boasted of countryside vegetable soup, fried broccoli with cheese, vegetarian spring rolls, an assortment of salads, pastas, breads and sauces (I lost count in the end), vegetarian Lasagne, spinach-gram curry, something with mushrooms, and to top it – a strawberry-blueberry pie. Also the service was really great and the waiter was trying hard to please me by bringing lemonades with syrup from Elderflower. It is the traditional summer drink there, which I later realized – It did take me hard to get a grasp on the name. It is worth visiting there, even if you are a typical non-vegetarian.
The next day, I was supposed to be traveling to Brussels for my next set of meetings, which was the actual review for my project. I was supposed to stay in Hotel Bloom, but my check-in time there was not until 8pm, whereas I was asked to check-out from my current hotel of stay in Ghent at 12 pm. I had around 6 hours of time on hand, before I sat on the train and I was contemplating on the various alternatives available. I did not know Brussels so well, but I had already stayed in Ghent and knew which places would prove desirable to spend this buffer time. I was thinking of visiting St. Bavo”s Cathedral again, and spending some quality time sitting in the church (Like I used to back in my school days – we had a beautiful Church at St. Xavier”s and it was always relaxing to attend the morning carols), or sit aimlessly on the Graslei, seeing the boats paddle their way across the river. Upon careful pondering on the two options (I sat on one of the benches in front of the Theatre outside my hotel for around 30 minutes), I decided to choose the latter (bottom-large). The weather was wonderfully beautiful, with the sun peeking in and out from the white clouds, and I had the first book of A Song of Ice and Fire Series (Game of Thrones) on hand, which would have served a good read. I came to really appreciate this decision, as it was the best six hours quality time I had ever got, since I arrived in Galway (June 2012). Also, a couple of hours later, five feet away from where I was sitting, I came across someone, who was reading the exact same book, around 60 pages behind me (call it coincidence) (lower-bottom-right). We had a nice chat about Game of Thrones as a whole (both the series and books), and it was a time well spent. Unfortunately, it was time for me to say adios to this wonderful city and head to the St. Gent Pieters Train Station to board the train to my next destination – Brussels.
