After France, I took a train to Ghent, Belgium to meet up with seester, who flew in from Connecticut☺️

We were visiting Ghent and Bruges (no Brussels, on account of scary bombers loving it there), before we went to Amsterdam.

seester

gent-saint pieters station

our airbnb studio apartment, in the perfect location

Ghent is super small, cute, and has all the ‘typical Belgium’ things you want to see (‘typical Belgium’ to me = waffles, chocolate, markets, and nice, old architecture😂). We actually liked Ghent more than Bruges – it felt more authentic.

Apparently Ghent has really good mustard… if you like mustard, I would recommend visiting😂 Our old mailman in Kentucky, Chuck Woodcock (great name, right?), loved French’s mustard. That is literally the only thing I know about him. And he is the only person I know who ‘has a thing’ for mustard. But I think he was on to something.

tierentyen-verlent mustard – STRONG – like, really strong – and delish

barrel of mustard!?

Some Ghent street shots…

Ghent canal

Groenmarkt – Ghent

cathedral

graffiti street

artists!

colors

I am amazed by this beautiful signage inside our small bus that took us from the train station to the Ghent town center…

BUS OF THE YEAR 2003

😂 this begs so many questions!!!

Questions like: 

What made 2003 such a great year for this bus?

What happened since 2003??!  Has the bus had a ‘bad run’ of drivers?  Inferior routes?

Maybe it was a political thing, and the bus has fallen out of favor with the local leadership?

Is the driver sad that, in 13 years, no BUS OF THE YEAR?

And, the most obvious question, why don’t they take the decal off?

More food:

chocolaterie van hoorebeke

choc

chocolates

they are making it downstairs

Max – for waffles

huge waffleee

mini waffle cookie

cheeses – pesto and ??? the pesto was badass

i found this rock inside one of my dried figs. it’s a shame because the figs were really good. luckily, my slow chewing meant that no teeth were harmed when i bit this boulder.

Then, we went back to the train station, to head to Bruges for two days…

train station bike park-and-ride

Train station video – low quality, ancient iPhone recording from seester.

Someone needed extra sleep time, while I was wide awake, on account of the coffee consumed.

Our Bruges hotel was in an old building with very traditional rooms. I loved this place!

bruges hotel

hotel – lovely building

loved this room! take note of sarah’s juice on the window sill that sat untouched for two days – but was not allowed to be moved to a better place (like dumped in the sink).. sometimes a great notion…

cold, rainy, BRUGES

archway at museum

Buildings of Bruges…

I think we got most of the ‘trying Belgium food items’ out of our system in Ghent. Although, Sarah did take a particular liking to one chocolate shop that had an interesting piece of chocolate she really appreciated… she even made me ask the guy working there to show it to her.

After Bruges, it was off to The Netherlands: Amsterdam😄

Next up: Seester Time in Holland