Europe - Trip 6

Day 3 - February 15, 2002

The loaded Sint Baafs

This was the day where were going to actually leave the city and see something Belgian other than just Brussels - we were off to Gent! Originally we were going to try to get a tour of the Hoogarden brewery for the morning but it was such a pain in the ass to get the thing booked that we decided to skip it and concentrate on the one day strip only. The train ride was uneventful and quick though we had to brave the dungeon of the Central Station.

The simple Sint Niklaas

Gent as described was the second city of Europe after Paris during the pre-renaissance and was a centre for worship and religious art both before and after the renaissance. The first stop here after the obligatory blind wander through town was Sint Baafs, the primary cathedral in the centre of the city. This church was liberally sprinkled with art and artifacts - so many that the basic guide to church didn't cover one 10th of what was there. Every alcove here held something that would be of import to a Catholic church anywhere else in the universe. Of course the most important thing to visit was the Van Eyck "Adoration of the Mystic Lamb" - pretty amazing to stand that close to a Van Eyck.

Gravensteen - the castle of the count

Next up was a walk across the square to Sint Niklaas (we were going to stop at the Belfry but it was closed for renovations). This church is older than most of Sint Baafs but is actually the newer church built some 200 years after the first parts of Sint Baafs where erected. With it's huge windows and white marble adornments and statues and light stone walls, this church practically glowed in the sunlight - would be a beautiful place to go to church if Sue and Todd were generally so inclined.

We then walked through other parts of the city, enjoying the sun and the general beautiful building and streets. Gravensteen was our destination and we spent a while exploring the fabulously restored medieval castle, with its torture chambers, halls and ancient moat. There were castles on this site as early as 800 AD if not before. Definitely a worthy stop.

View of the canal from Gravensteen

A quick wrap from here and a very crowded train ride (rush hour on a Friday) back to Brussels and we got our stuff ready for the hop across the pond.

END OF TRIP 6 - go to Trip 7

Gorgeous day. If you'd like to see more about this picturesque town, you can read about the medieval bits at the Belgium Travel Network site.