Ghent

With Bruges, done we were now all set for a trip to Ghent on the Sunday. The great news was that the weather was better and we could even get some great sunshine in Ghent. Ghent is on the same route as Bruges, half way down. In fact we crossed Ghent while going to Bruges the previous day.
Ghent was a comparatively larger city so it would not be all walking. We had to take a tram from the station to Korenmarket stop, which was close to the city centre and it was quite the distance. We were welcomed by grand sunshine and blue skies in Ghent. The town centre was like any other European City. Cathedrals and midieval architecture. While Bruges was a canal city, this was a ‘river’ city at the confluence of the Leie and Scheldt rivers. From here onward it was all walking around the beautiful place. The crowd was a lot lesser than Bruges. The first landmark we spotted was the Bellfry of Ghent, the 14th century watch tower followed by the St Bavo’s cathedral.

I tried remembering the other buildings but realized there is no use. It is best to enjoy the view. What is  there in a name to remember?  The trams plying through the heart of the city centre was a great sight to behold. Soon we walked towards Graslei, the river side and that gave us our post card view that is mostly featured on the tourist brochures. The stepped triangular architecture buildings adorned both sides of the river which was more like a glorified canal. Boat ride could have been an interesting activity but we decided against it as we had already done it in Bruges the previous day. With the sun shining our plan was to not run after sight-seeing lists but to just soak in the atmosphere at the river side. There were cafes, restaurants, bridges and lanes which we walked and explored.

The most prominent landmark is the 10th century Gravensteen castle surrounded by a moat which we could view from one of the bridges. It was getting colder now so we retired into one of the cafes to get ourselves warmed up and also recharge our phone which was now discharged thanks to its camera duties. We walked through the lanes and reached a huge square. This gave us the indication that the city centre was well spread out and there would be no end to our walks. Our last adventure for the day was a tram ride to make fukll use of the all-day tickets that we purchased. We decided to take a ride to a remote stop and then travel back in order to get a view of the whole city. This turned out to be a flop as by this time it had become dark and there was nothing we could view. We got off at a remote stop where there was not a single soul and then headed back to Korenmarket and then back to the Ghent station. We reached Brussels Grand Place in an hour and ended up having dinner at the same Indian place where we had the previous day. Ghent sure turned out to be a place worthy of a visit which was made better by the sunshine. It was now time to get some rest and get ready for the capital city of Brussels the next day.

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