Day 11

Today I decided to go to Ghent, Belgium. The sky was grey and the air was a bit chilly, but it was not raining yet. I took the metro to Bruxelles South Station, and from there, caught a train to Ghent. The train ride only took 30 minutes.

Ghent is a port city in Northwest Belgium and is about equidistant between Brussels and Bruges. I was doing some research about Belgium yesterday and I came across this castle that is located in Ghent. I was intrigued and had to go visit the castle. I did not have anything planned for today anyways so I thought, might as well go check the city out. Because of my Eurail Global Pass, I can easily go from city to city.

Once I got to Ghent, I went to the tourist office and asked for the best way to get to this castle. The lady told me to take tram 1. What a nice city, they only have two main tram lines. So I easily found tram 1 and headed to Gravensteen castle. This was a nice adjustment from Brussels where they have about 25 different trams, 20 different metros, and too many busses to count.

The castle was absolutely stunning. Too bad it was grey and cloudy out but here are some pictures that I took:



The Gravensteen Castle originates from the Middle Ages and means "castle of the counts" in Dutch. The castle served as the seat for the Counts of Flanders until it was abandoned in 14th century. The castle was then used as a courthouse and a prison. While inside the castle, many of the rooms focused on the prison aspect. There were many displays of the torture items used on inmates. There were also armor, sword, and knife displays. The castle is barely furnished inside other than these display rooms. I got to go on the roof of the castle so here are some pictures of the city of Ghent from an aerial perspective:



After exploring Gravensteen, I just walked around the city and got some lunch at Subway. It was nice having food that I can normally have back at home. I was hoping to get a waffle today, but the waffle shops were sparse. When I did locate a waffle shop, they did not have the varities that the waffle shops have in Brussels. I did not want to waste my money on just a plain waffle with sugar or Nutella so I will wait until tomorrow to get a new combination in the city. Here is some cool architecture in the city that I photographed.


It began to rain and I had nothing else to do so I headed back to the train station and went back to my apartment. Tomorrow begins the Flower Festival in Brussels. The Grand Place will be decorated with over 100,000 flowers. I hope that everything is set up by the time I arrive. I might try to go to a few more museum as well. 


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