TRUFFLES

It was goodbye to Brussels, and a fabulous, comfortable room and yummy breakfast and hallo to Ghent.  Getting to the new hotel became a bit of a mission.  I stood at the map board thing for about 10 minutes trying to figure out where I actually was on the map, and which way to go.  About twenty minutes later after hauling my overfull suitcase along narrow, dodgy looking streets, I found myself in front of my new hotel.  To be completely honest, I almost walked right past it.  It did not look like I imagined a hotel to look like.  The room was MUCH smaller than the previous one, which was disheartening, but alas, it was a room and a bed with some comfort, although the lifts were a bit shaky.  Turns out they were both out of order when I went down for breakfast the next morning, and continued to be so up until I left.  Two months of not exercising and my muscles didn’t know what hit them when I had to haul my luggage down the stairs to leave.

Ghent is a “little” university city in Belgium, with 250,000 citizens, and was continuously grey, so I felt pretty much at home, but typical, the day I had to leave was a clear, brisk morning, oh well.  SO MANY BIKES.  One must be careful when crossing the road not to be plowed down by the young students, and sometimes old people, on bikes.  It was also quite frustrating how the pedestrians just walk across the road, even when a car is close.  I would stand at the corner looking like a fool waiting for the cars to pass until it were safe to cross.

I took a wander around the main shopping centre and came across the Gavensteen fort/ castle.  After being in Europe for so long now I have become accustomed to the historical architecture and now most of what I see is underwhelming, but this castle managed to captivate my interest.  I thoroughly enjoyed and was also disturbed at the torture room and the amount of equipment that they had.  You would not like to have been in the medieval ages, especially if you had done something bad. 

There wasn’t actually much to do in Ghent.  It was just nice to have a wander around and explore without stressing about getting to the next sight before it closed.  Going to a chocolatier’s in Belgium is a must.  Going to two is not advised.  Oops.  But it was cold, and drizzly, and I have truffles!  I decided to return to my room.  Bad idea, as I got sent away by the maid.  This led to a return to the main city area or cobblestones.  My poor knees and feet never want to see cobble stones ever again.  The whole point of actually coming to Ghent though was to go down to Ypres and go visit the World War One war memorials.  I never got around to doing that, so that’s another place to add to the “must return to” list.