Ghent & the Summer Festival

Beth and I are still blogging here and there about our trip to Europe this summer. This post is about my favorite city, Ghent, Belgium.

July 26, 27
After spending two fun days in Brussels (later blog), we took a 45-minute train ride to the nearby town of Ghent. From our understanding, most tourists go to Brugges when looking for a smaller city experience to Brussels. Luckily, we had the personal tip to visit Ghent from two teachers at Beth's school who lived in Brussels for 12 or so years. They thought Brugges was too touristy and Ghent was still relatively undiscovered. We're so glad we took their advice as it turned out to be a highlight of our trip.

Our timing to visit Ghent couldn't have been better as it coincided with their annual summer festival. This festival is actually the largest open-air festival in Europe, drawing 1.5 million people. Ironically, this time of the year makes it very touristy, but the festival just added to our experience of Ghent being a lively city. During the week, there are numerous musical performances throughout the city center (from hip hop to soul to rock to r&b and on) going on at all times, street perfomers of all types (mimes, break dancers, solo and group musicians, artists, comedians, magicians), carnival rides, and loads of good food and beer tents. Best of all, all the entertainment is free! We watched an incredible concert late one night of a local Ghent girl who has become a famous soul singer with a seven-piece big band. There was a huge crowd of people watching the performance which went on past midnight. Beth and I were amazed each night as we headed off to bed (1:30 a.m. or so) how many thousands upon thousands of people still going strong. The festival really never stops.

Super talented and fun Gypsy band

Ghent looks great at night!

The old castle

During the days we enjoyed exploring the city, marvelling at the 17th century architecture and the 8th century castle (which warded off vikings!), meandering through the miriad of interesting shops and galleries, touring the massive and beautiful churches, taking a Duvel boat ride (drink a Duvel while you travel!) throughout the city along it's two rivers (which divide up the city center and give it a lot of character, much like the canals of Amsterdam), stopping off at various tents for snacks and drinks to people-watch, and discovering all kinds of entertainments scattered about.

There's a big carnival ride jutting up in front of the churches.

Typical city streets near the center

At one point during our boat ride, we passed underneath a live concert!

The festival really made the experience for us in Ghent, but I think it would still be a great city to spend a few days in any other time of the year. We really hope to go back one day.

Some especially memorable buildings

Post-Four Germany

Where to start when you only have a few moments to blog? We have not even had time to go into the details of our trips to Berlin, Prague, Munich Brussels, and the city of Giessen. For another day with pictures, perhaps! Needless to say, each trip consisted of endless comments like, ''Wow!'' and ''That looks delicious!'' and ''Maybe just one more...'' and ''Which one of us smells'' and "'Who's the boss?" (Angela or Tony?.....or Mona?.....)

After saying goodbye to Rob and Linden in Germany, the fearless foursome was split up, and James and I were down to just us two for the next week. While we were sad to say goodbye, we were also looking forward to a week of meeting new people, seeing different countries, and experiencing more of the good life of Euro-culture (aka: Belgian fries, beers, and waffles!)

We spent two days in Brussels, which was suprisingly quaint with lots to do! The people were incredibly friendly and laid back, and it certainly didn't feel like a capital city of1.2 million. We loved the giant parks the best, I think. People will sometimes tell you to skip Brussels and head for Brugges or Ghent (smaller, more picturesque towns) but Brussels was worth the visit.

Next, we went to Ghent and fell into great luck because right now the town is in the middle of an annual 10-day festival in which the entire town (500,000) turns out to jam out, indulge, socialize, and shop. It is customary to stay out the entire night, and the city does not close down until about 8am or so...we lasted until a little before 2am before fighting our way through the thongs of people (pretty much all locals!) to turn in for the night.

Tomorrow morning we head off for the last leg of our trip, Amsterdam. We'll spend 2 days there before heading back to good ole' Guate.

Blog Easter Egg: A short, gentle mohawk combined with a short, gentle mullet is a dapper 'do these days, and in German they call the mohawk `Euro Cheese`! We prefer the combo-terms "Mulhawk" or ''Mollet." Post comments on other suggested terms for this weirdly popular hairstyle!