After Ypres, a town razed to the ground by WWI then rebuilt to look like it did before that war, arriving in Ghent is like arriving into a different country. The first thing to catch your eye as you exit the train station is the number of bikes parked nearby, literally thousands of bicycles. The not-so-small circular park was surrounded by deep rows of bikes. Over the days since we’ve been here, we have seen so many people riding bikes rather than driving cars.
Ghent is a university city, the Flemish university par excellence according to the main Ghent University. One of the things that typically goes with being a university town, is that it becomes a vibrant city of art and culture, especially a town that has had its architecture survive two world wars. The building across the street from our apartment was built in 1732. Other buildings stand proudly from the 1300’s. The oldest ordinary building is the Stapelhuis shown here which was actually built in the 1200’s. However, the Graventeen Castle was built in 1180.
Ghent is a city with canals, something that likely most cities in Belgium have in common. It is at the joining of two rivers, the Leie and the Schelde, where the city first began. The canals are joined to these two rivers. The result for the old centre of town is a picturesque medieval landscape. We made a point of walking most of the canals that touch the old city centre, and a few that went outside, those that were more river than canal.
Now, about the art. So many buildings have statures or reliefs or murals with carved stone for decoration, even houses. Of course there are formal statues in gardens or decorating important buildings like the Opera, Guild Houses, and Government buildings. Yet, it is the new that captures the imagination. One particular street about a block from our apartment is called Graffiti Street, Werregarenstraat is filled to overflowing with art. Yet as we walked further, we saw more such modern art. The art shops which are more numerous than one would expect, fire the imagination of the possible.
There was too much that we saw that could fill pages and pages of commentary with photos here. However, we have more places to go and more to see. Next stop is Antwerp. Just an aside, I have taken more than 2,000 photos since we arrived, and those are just the ones we have kept.