Ghent, Belgium

We decided to take a day trip to Ghent this morning. After breakfast at our B&B, we were off on a train by 9:15. On its website, Ghent boasts it's epic tourist signage as the only type of its kind in Belgium. They say it's impossible to get lost! That means Jason and I did the impossible today. I feel like I have walked down every single street in Ghent and perhaps I did. Jason says no I didn't. Once we got our bearings, we really enjoyed the town.

 Ghent has a lot more period buildings than Brussels. Its historic downtown was so scenic and pleasant to walk through. One highlight from our trip was a castle in the middle of town. We took a self-guided tour and I actually enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. We took an inappropriate amount of pictures just because it was so beautiful but I will share only a few with you:

 We got a map from the tourist information center in the Belfry. It took us around the highlights of Historic Ghent including St.Bavo's Cathedral, Sikkel and Sint-Jorhisof which is the oldest hotel in Western Europe.

Imagine the girl in the purple coat cropped out of that shot.

We had some great waffles today...

We also tried a local specialty called Cuberdons which is a cone shaped sweet gummy:

I have to post  a picture of some fancy chocolates we got for dessert last night! I still don't stray from white "chocolate" which I know the real chocolate fanciers might scoff at, but Jason tried some dark pieces and says they were fresh and more than edible - that was a direct quote.

Belgium

We left Amsterdam yesterday morning via a Thalys high speed train. Two hours later, we were in Brussels. We are staying in a B&B in the heart of the gay district! Here's the view from our room:

They serve a nice little breakfast at 9am that consists of cereal, yogurt, an assortment of bread with jams, meat & cheese, orange juice and tea.

Today was really our "first day" in Brussels as yesterday we did laundry. It is so nice to have clean clothes again. Today we took a tour of the Cantillon Lambic Brewery. Jason enjoyed it:

It ended with some lovely samples... all before noon too! We tried a Gueuze and a Rose de Gambrinus (raspberry) lambic. The Cantillon Brewery is one of the last traditional lambic breweries in Brussels.

After that we want to the Grande Place which is the oldest part of Brussels. It is one of the few remaining original squares and adjoining streets.

We have tried Belgian waffles.
We have tried Belgian chocolate.
We have tried Belgian pastries.
We have tried Belgian beer.

Our mission for tomorrow is Belgian Frites and then we can move on. Actually I don't think we move on for a couple of days? There's still lots to see here though... museum of auto history, museum of instruments and perhaps a day trip to one of the smaller out lying cities like Antwerp or Gent.