Belgium
Het Liefken

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    • Day 47 - Antwerp & Ghent, Belgium

      August 25, 2023 in Belgium ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

      Today we check out of our accomodation and at some point in the day head for the medieval town of Ghent.
      We woke up late as we were pretty exhausted from previous days, Katie timed it as nearly 12 hours of sleep. There is a local cafe incorporated at the hotel, for convenience we walked out of our room, down the corridor for a breakfast board as we couldn’t be stuffed walking and finding somewhere to eat. After breakfast we stored our luggage at the hotel and checked out.

      We had one purpose this morning… buy Katie new pants, hers had shrunk in the wash in Ireland and only noticed now! So off to Meir we went!
      Somehow we didn’t just leave with pants, also a few other pieces for Katie! I better say I brought another pair of shorts and some aftershave or she’ll yell at me for pointing her out! Once the shopping was done, we picked up lunch from the supermarket, got the bags and headed for the train station to catch the train to Ghent.
      The train ride is 1hour long and thankfully we didn’t prebook any tickets, they currently are running an offer of 2 for 1 tickets. So travel in Belgium turns out not too bad!

      Once at Ghent we decided walking the 24minutes wouldn’t be bad for us to the hotel… it was a very light mist of rain when we decided this… 10 minutes out from the accomodation the sky opened up, thankfully we had a wee bit of shelter from the trees and continued once it eased just a touch. The streets of Ghent are typical Europe… cobbles - so I ended up carrying the bags a lot through town. Once at the accomodation freshened up and headed out to see Ghent.

      Our first stop was Grasburg Bridge, a narrow short bridge over the Leie canal in the centre of Ghent, this looks to Korenlei & Graslei streets, lined with the famous architectural buildings. These buildings were once home to grain storage & where the Hermitage Hotel is, used to be a brothel with the famous swans facing away from each other on the front of the building, as we later found out.
      We stopped off at a local merchant - ‘Jack’s House’ for Oliebollen, Dutch donuts! Very fresh and tasted amazing.
      Ghent used to be a very rich city, let’s put it this way, our walk from the train station you can see many bell towers and churches. The Main Street you can catch buses and trams from, you can see 3 main churches with one of the monasteries beside it. You can also see the Belfry of Ghent Het Belfort van Gent, this is nick named Little Ben as it was made after Big Ben but looks similar to Big Ben.
      We decided, as we missed the walking tour we were thinking of, lets do a canal tour on a boat, 40 minutes for 10Euro. We went along 3 different canals seeing the buildings and the driver talking about them, I was sat next to the engine so I caught majority of the talking he did.

      After the canal tour I was on the hunt for some Belgium beer, we found a place that said tasting trays, had me sold. Until I ordered it and the tasting tray was 3 full beers I needed to drink on my own as Katie was happy with a Cider. The three beers I had were all Belgian beers, first was a Cherry Sour called Kwak (8%), next was a blonde ale called Antigoon (6%) & to finish off the tasting, a brown ale called Adriaen (10%). While at the tasting the weather had looked threatening to take a turn again, sure enough it did and it rained pretty hard. Katie looked at the weather app and it said should stop in 7 minutes, the bartender agreed, 7 minutes went past and sure enough apple forecast was right for once!

      After the tasting I was somewhat hungry, we decided keep it simple and got some more frites from Frites Atelier, I got the Thai Chicken Frites & Katie got the Parmesan & Basil Frites.
      Afterwards I figured I hadn’t eaten my way through Belgium so opted from a waffle… from the same place we got the donuts. The lady remembered me and laughed saying you can come back tomorrow, or in an hour your choice.

      We went back to the accomodation to climb the creaky stairs to our room.
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    • Day 6

      Radtour nach Gent - ein Blickwinkel

      August 30, 2023 in Belgium ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

      Die Radtour auf dem Hinweg nach Gent war nicht wirklich toll: entlang von dicht befahrenen Straßen - entlang des lebendigen Hafens mit viel Gewerbegebiet…
      Aber dann: Gent!
      Unerwartet und überwältigend!
      Nicht nur, dass es wirklich wie Venedig aussieht - viele Boote, die Touristen durch die Kanäle fuhren…
      Es gibt hier sooo viele alte, mächtige Gebäude, Kirchen, Klöster, Burgen dicht auf dicht - eigentlich fast entschlagend!
      Es ist wirklich mehr als einen Tag wert!
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    • Day 4

      Entspannter Tag

      June 3, 2019 in Belgium ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

      Es wurden dann doch 61 km, aber sehr entspannt und viel Zeit für Gent. Eine wirklich sehr schöne Stadt, die man unbedingt besuchen sollte. Geiles Bier und unglaubliche Frittenvariationen. Habe eine sehr schöne Unterkunft und bin schon auf die morgigen 100 km gespannt.Read more

    • Day 1

      Gent bei Nacht

      October 30, 2019 in Belgium ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C

      Nach einer etwa 5 Stunden langen Autofahrt sind wir im Dunklen in Gent angekommen. Obwohl die online Bewertungen gesagt haben dass Parkhaus wäre schwer zu finden, ging es trotzdem recht schnell. Unser Airbnb ist auch schnell gefunden und wir stellen fest dass es die perfekte Lage direkt neben der Altstadt hat. Unser Gastgeber versorgt und mit Tipps zu Restaurants und Bars, also stürzen wir uns direkt ins Getümmel. Die Altstadt ist wunderschön, mittelalterlich, mit Kanälen durchzogen und toll beleuchtet. Die Empfohlenen Fritten mit Bratensoße sind genau das richtige und wir machen es uns zur Aufgabe in den nächsten Tagen möglichst viele verschiedene der unglaublich vielen Biersorten zu probieren in dem kein Bier zweimal getrunken wird.Read more

    • Day 2

      Spaziergang durch Gent

      October 31, 2019 in Belgium ⋅ ☀️ 5 °C

      Heute steht die Erkundung der Stadt mit ihren Sehenswürdigkeiten an, bevor es dann am Nachmittag weiter nach Brügge geht. Das Wetter ist auf unserer Seite, die Sonne lacht und es ist ein herrlicher wenn auch kalter Morgen. Bei Tag ist Gent noch schöner als bei Nacht. Wunderschöne alte Häuser entlang der Kanäle, mittelalterliche Kirchen und Burgen in der romantischen Fußgängerzone, einfach beeindruckend.
      Von unserem Gastgeber wissen wir, dass Gent die Heimat der besten belgischen Schokoladenmanufaktur und Patisserie ist. Der Betrieb wurde sogar mit einem Stern ausgezeichnet! Das lassen wir uns natürlich nicht entgehen und es ist wirklich ein sagenhaftes Geschmackserlebnis.
      Bevor wir uns auf den Weg nach Brügge machen, starken wir uns noch mit einem fantastischen, gesunden, uns sehr leckerem Essen direkt am Kanal in der Sonne.... Es könnte uns nicht besser gehen!
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    • Day 24

      Transit

      November 6, 2022 in Belgium ⋅ 🌧 10 °C

      I slept. 🎉 Will did partly but still not great.
      At around 10 we went to get our free breakfast thanks to our bed bugs.
      Checked out around 11:30 after spending some time trying to help Jess cause she was having panic attack cause her flight got delayed so she might not catch the next one. I gave her flight centers emergency 24hr number. She’s rather stressed as the flights aren’t on the same ticket booking.

      On our way. Know our way to the train station despite all the twists and turns cause we’ve been there every bloody day. 😆
      20€ ticket and off we went. Bit of luck 50% trains take an hour 50% take 30mins. We got the quick one woot.
      I just love the county side 😭😭😭
      When we arrived we had a bit of trouble figuring out the trams but we got there. Had to get line one for about 7 stops.
      Immediately recognized where we were when we got out. Our hotel different direction from our hostel but everything was familiar. Keen to properly explore tomorrow. It’s raining today.
      We checked in - check in lady was lovely and went through a map with us then we went up to our room. It’s has very big hostel vibes. A bit run down but cheap.
      We went and got lunch on the street she said was the Resturant street.
      I need to remember to charge my camera battery tonight so I can take some nice pics tomorrow of all the little artistic accents of the city.

      We found an Indian restaurant that looked nice so we went in.
      Food was delicious but service was terrible we were laughing.
      First of all dude saw us come in but did not approach. We grabbed our own menu and picked our own table.
      Still did not approach for 10 mins until suddenly he asks “ready?”
      Yes you clown 😆
      Resturant was empty except for us and his daughter playing English cartoons on her iPad on volume level 100. We could follow along quite easily. They obviously all live upstairs and it sounded like someone hitting the roof with a broom or kids jumping on the bed THUMP THUMP THUMP then some yelling at each other between levels of the house. It was so funny. It was like living in their lounge room. Totally oblivious to having customers.
      Lucky food was nice!! Haha
      Walked back in the rain and having some down time cause it’s cold and wet. Our day tomorrow will be more than enough to get everything done.

      Had an hour nap cause I could NOT hold out. We Shall see how badly I’m affected later at 3am lol
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    • Day 10

      Lys River canal boat ride

      May 30, 2023 in Belgium ⋅ ☀️ 68 °F

      Ghent is the confluence of 2 rivers. The Lys’ source is in France and flows into the Skeldte. French opened 2 abbeys one for men & one for women. A canal was dug to connect to North Sea to import wool and trade with the new world. Could not be protected as a UNESCO city because the modern high rise is too close to the city.
      Brugges entire city is protected as a UNESCO city.
      Flemish have dug 5 canals towards the sea.
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    • Day 8

      Il castello

      July 31, 2023 in Belgium ⋅ 🌬 18 °C

      Da fuori è molto bello, l'interno non dice nulla, quindi non siamo entrati.
      A quanto pare abbiamo fatto bene perché anche il receptionist dell'hotel ci ha detto che non è nulla di che, essendo un castello interno alla città era utilizzato come castello per le torture più che per la difesa.Read more

    • Day 8

      200 birre

      July 31, 2023 in Belgium ⋅ 🌬 18 °C

      Ogni negozio vende almeno 50 birre differenti, ci sono quelli che se la tirano che arrivano fino a 400 tipi differenti, wtf
      Non mi basterebbero 400 giorni per poterle assaggiare tutte nella maniera corretta (e senza farmi venire un'ossessione/dipendenza)Read more

    • Day 8

      Strada dei Graffiti (a caso)

      July 31, 2023 in Belgium ⋅ 🌧 19 °C

      Trovata completamente a caso, stavamo andando verso la nostra meta e abbiamo visto questa fantastica strada.
      Ogni tot ripassano tutti i muri di bianco così da poter dare l'opportunità a tutti di creare su questo muro. Tecnicamente si dice che cambia ogni giorno perché continuano a creare nuovi graffiti ogni giorno. FantasticoRead more

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