Ghent

Slowly but surely we are getting to know Belgium. Our third day trip in a row was to Ghent. Ghent is located about a half hour away from Brussels, but it took us more than an hour to get there because we took the slow train that stopped every 5 minutes.

My description of Ghent would be a cross because the beautiful quaint town of Brugge with its canals and old buildings and Antwerp which a bustling city with lots of things to see and more much more modern. While Ghent has an old taste with large churches, a castle (!!), and great architecture, it also has a booming student life with more than 30,000 students attending.

We began by just wandering a little and walked into two beautiful churches. Emily liked St Bavo's Cathedral most because it was gloomy and more reverent. It contained the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb which is a huge painted polytych with 12 panels. I personally preferred St. Nicholas because it was open and bright.

After looking through the churches, we went for lunch where I ate a typical Belgian lunch, a Croque-monsieur which is basically a ham and cheese sandwhich with a fried egg on top. The only thing that would've made it more delicious would've been some frites with it.

We also went on a boat ride which we all decided later it wasnt worth it once we realized we didnt actually get to see anything we couldn't have seen walking along the canals. Being a bit dissapointed, we went to the castle which did not dissapoint! The views were fabulous and there the castle had basically been converted into a museum of torture.

It had been a long day so we decided to catch a train back in the later afternoon. The Belgian countryside is beautiful with big luscious green patches of land, small rivers, and lots of little towns scattered about.