Days 9 & 10 - Ghent

This morning we caught an Aer Lingus flight from Dublin direct to Brussels, Belgium. We have good friends who live in a small town a little south of the city, and we had planned to spend some time with them. We didn't see much of Brussels itself except from the air and the window of the train. Brussels will have to wait for our next trip. We had a little bit of and issue finding the right train south to Enghien, the town where our friends live. The language barrier and my butchering accent made me virtually unintelligible to the worker selling local train tickets. But with some not-so-wild hand gesturing and writing the name of the town down on paper we finally connected and were able to purchase the appropriate tickets. Once we had tickets in hand, it was easy to find our train, and we were off. We stepped off in Enghien, collected the stares reserved for outsiders , found a pay phone and rang up our friends. They picked us up in no time, and in 20 minutes we were relaxing at their home, catching up on missed time. We spent a nice evening chatting and admiring their new baby boy.

The next day our hosts packed us into their car and we headed off the the medieval town of Ghent. This is a quaint and beautiful town. To date, it has not grown to be as touristy as better known Brugges. Its full of amazing old world architecture, towering cathedrals and a belfry guilt with gold. This is a town made for walking. Around every corner we found some architectural gem, tiny restaurant or shop. And we spent some time just wandering.

The town surrounds Gravensteen, the Castle of the Counts of Flanders. An impressive structure from the outside with a formidable moat and and a massive front gate structure. I'm sure the counts of old felt very secure in this incredible stronghold. The castle has a great medieval charm and appeal, including a display of the torture chamber and various, devious torture devices. These attractions always seem to be morbidly popular and we saw "torture chambers" all throughout our European travels. Without some research its hard to tell whether or not the attractions have any historical basis, or exist purely to attract the tourist dollar. Gravensteen has a great inner courtyard and guard house. And it was interesting to "explore" the inner rooms and halls. As usual, the views from the castle walls and ramparts are wonderful, providing a commanding view of the entire town.

We found Ghent to be a good place to shop for the lace and linen that the Belgians are famous for. We visited several shops, made some purchases and were able to check my mother's souvenir gift off the list!

For lunch we enjoyed the local specialty, a bucket of steamed mussels. And we found a table outdoors on the canal for happy hour and a sampling of local beers.

One of the other special attractions is the famous painting The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb by Van Eyck, located in the Cathedral of St. Bavo. This is said to be one of the seeds of the renaissance artistic movement. You can clearly see how this influenced the many painters and artists who followed. The audio guide is well worth the price and plan to spend at least 20 or 30 minutes viewing the large painting.

That evening as we passed back by the chapel before heading out of town we were treated to wonderful light and sky accenting the beauty of St. Bavo.