{"id":166,"date":"2015-05-12T20:23:36","date_gmt":"2015-05-12T20:23:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kiwihoods.com\/?page_id=166"},"modified":"2015-05-12T20:25:38","modified_gmt":"2015-05-12T20:25:38","slug":"ghent","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.kiwihoods.com\/?page_id=166","title":{"rendered":"Ghent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ghent has been called a ‘Gritty Bruges’ by the lonely planet.\u00a0 I would say it is not as pretty as Bruges, but it\u00a0is still a nice city.\u00a0 We stopped at a camping ground in Blaarmeerson\u00a0that\u00a0would have to be\u00a0the largest leisure activity area I have ever seen.\u00a0 There was a rowing regatta on when we arrived which was amazing.\u00a0 They have a two kilometre rowing course there and they had race after race on all Saturday and all Sunday, which was great to watch.\u00a0 At the leisure complex they have a huge swimming lake (it looked a bit ordinary to swim to us) but it was a massive area.\u00a0 They had tennis courts, artificial wall climbing facility, a huge beach area with volleyball courts, running course, rugby ground, canoeing area,\u00a0a lake to fish, playgrounds etc etc.\u00a0 Absolutely massive.\u00a0 This fish we saw in the lake where huge too!<\/p>\n

We arrived late on Saturday but still walked into the centre of Ghent which we were told was only 4 kilometres one way, but I swear it was about 5 or 6 kilometres\u00a0because by the time we had walked there, walked around and went to walk back I was completely buggared.\u00a0 It was really busy and so interesting.\u00a0 Ghent has light rail cars or tram cars I would call them\u00a0(only two carriages in each) through the whole centre of the city.\u00a0 So as you are walking along the footpath we had to avoid not only other people, but watch out for bikes, cars and the rail cars.<\/p>\n

Sunday we decided to walk back into the centre and have a good look around at the architecture.\u00a0 Ghent has some beautiful old\u00a0buildings as you will see in some of the photos.\u00a0 The churches are always amazing\u00a0 in this part of the world.\u00a0 I wonder how they managed to build them with their magnificent high arches and columns, how long it would have taken and how many people probably died whilst they were being built.\u00a0 We imagine Ghent is also like a mini Venice with many buildings built on the water and sightseeing\u00a0tourist boats cruising around.\u00a0 The canals are very pretty and prime spots for everyone especially for bars and cafes.<\/p>\n

Lunch was fresh baguettes, so crunchy on the outside,\u00a0filled with fromage (brie), tomato, jambon (ham), just devine.\u00a0\u00a0We adore them, they would have to be one of\u00a0our most favourite lunches, there is nothing nicer.\u00a0 I will miss that when we leave Belgium.\u00a0 Ghent people still speak Flemish primarily, with English and French as well.<\/p>\n

With the mix of traffic I mention earlier, we watched as tourists forgot to look out and saw people knocked off their bikes – and on the rail tracks – a bit scary, but the people on bikes are obviously so used to biking through the city they don’t watch for people stepping in front of them either.\u00a0 The cobbled roads don’t make it easy either, to walk (especially in high heels)\u00a0or bike and every now and then you would think you were on a walkway and a car would come driving right at you and you would have to move quick smart.\u00a0 The city dynamics were very interesting.\u00a0 There weren’t the amount of tourists like Bruges had.\u00a0 I watched as groups of 5 boys were approaching carefully picked people in the squares and asked something of them.\u00a0 I half expected to see one of them being a\u00a0pickpocket or something, but I didn’t see that and I never did find out what they were doing, but it seemed all harmless in the end.<\/p>\n

We took the bus back today since the legs aren’t what they used to be especially after the day before.\u00a0 The dynamics on the bus were also interesting with a rather vibrant middle eastern family’s? antics who boarded and seemed to take over the whole bus, only to be watched over by disapproving elderly locals complete with their dogs.<\/p>\n

Off to Wallonia (up in the hills\/forests)\u00a0area\u00a0Monday on the way to Luxembourg.<\/p>\n