Ghent

Today we took a day trip to Ghent, a port city in northwest Belgium, at the confluence of the Leie and Scheldt rivers. During the Middle Ages Ghent was a prominent city-state that was a centre for weaving. In the 18th & 19th Century Ghent’s textile industry flourished again. The first mechanical weaving machine assisted with this and it was smuggled in from Manchester. Today Ghent is a University town and cultural centre that is known for its wonderful medieval architecture.

After wandering around the city and stopping for lunch at a nice Italian restaurant, we booked tickets on a canal tour which took us on a lovely boat ride around the waterways of Ghent. Our guide Pierre was very interesting and had quite the sense of humour and he provided us with a myriad of anecdotes about Ghent as well as providing us with a lot of information about the history of this fabulous city.Read more