Seven of us not so sprightly Brits decided to have a long weekend in Ghent Belguim and it turns out to be a pretty dammned cool muthaflipping city.Maybe it's because it's on the Dutch side of the Belguim divide so a little more laid back...
We got the Eurostar from St Pancras on friday morning and for some reason it seemed to be more chaotic than usual,i even did the fingerprint thing for the first time,the scrutiny of the passports was taking a bit longer but hey ho it's no big deal...it would appear our train going out was one of the original rolling stock from 30 years ago,all looking very tired especially compared to the new French Eurostar trains which by contrast are like being fed champagne & oysters in Marie Anntoinette's boudoir...
No worries with the journey though,had a quick drink in Brussels mainly to have a smoke and brush up on our Franglais which of course would'nt be deployed in Ghent as Dutch is the order of the day and we're too old to cause an international incident...then the Ghent train,half hour and just above a tenner return ,all pretty reasonable.Of course had another bevvy opposite the station,a nice place called Cafe de Klock.Well worth a visit if you want to break up your trip into Ghent centre...right next to the tram stop too.
I was staying in a different hotel to the others.Their's looked like a very pleasant family run place mine on the other hand was smack bang in the middle of the red light district even to the extent that either side of the main door to the establishment were three rows of windows with ladies clad in various stages of undress trying to intice...not sure if my place was part of the complex or not,i did'nt like to ask my new friends who were clearly not too fussed about the booking policy of my guest house...
We got our base for the weekend just up the road from our respective digs,It's called Fajo Lobi Cafe ! (for some reason they felt the need for an !) Excellent spot,very friendly,good food,good beer and exceptionally good coffee which i probably had a lot more than is healthy...we're at an age where galavanting,albeit desirable,is beyond our capabilities after a long train ride.So we stayed were we were...the cafe was great although they did do a sort of honour system with some of their payments.You could stock up on bread,fruit etc then just tell them what you'd had when it came to pay...
Strolled into the centre next morning,which was busier than i'd expected,all very ornate medieval churches and Hanseatic League vanity projects coupled with the sort of cobble stones where every step is as potentially leathal as going into a tackle with an Argentinian midfielder holding a grudge...as Ghent is full of waterways we had to have a boat trip and as soon as we were bossed about by the captain i knew it would be a fun ride,she'd already had some banter with some Dutch lads who'd (hopefully) joked about women drivers.She promised that she probably would'nt get us all killed whilst giving them a steely glare...her patter was superb,funny,infomative with that enviable abilty to slip into several languages easily.I heard English,French,Italian,Spanish & Dutch.I'm constantly impressed by our European cousins linguistic capabilities...when going around the 13th centuary castle that dominates the city she regaled us with all the goriness associated with the place and said some American tourists had complained she'd been too graphic and had to remind them it was'nt Disney and Micky Mouse did'nt live there...
Myself and Andy popped into an Irish bar to watch his beloved Spurs lose again.I say beloved but by this stage i think the relationship is more just sticking together for the sake of the kids even though they're in their forties and should have buggered off out the house years ago...Andy went but i stayed to watch Arsenal get batterd by Brighton who resembled Italy in their sexy plain blue shirts,y'know,when Italy were good...
Met up back at the cafe and after a few nore bevvies hit the city lights.Sort of...eventually we ended up in what appeared to be a sort of middle class shebeen,about half a dozen punters,a lovely landlady who'd clearly been hitting the optics all afternoon and improvised outside seating including coca cola crates upturned as makeshit tables.It was great in all it's ad hoc glory...
Unfortunately i could'nt watch Wolves beat West Brom the next day as timings would have been too tight so got the final result through whilst standing on the platform at Ghent station waiting for the Brussels train.A simple fistpump and whispered "Get the fuck in you bastards" had to suffice...the return journey was fine,i did have to go through the Eurostar metal detector a few time as i kept setting it off for some reason but they let me through eventually...
So Ghent is a great place,Plenty for history buffs,plenty for drinking buffs also being a university city has loads going on for younger parish members too.It seems a pretty chilled place,I would highly recommend it for a long weekend.Even the red light district seemed to be less sleazy than many others in European cities...
ps Thanks to Adzovi,Andrea,Andy,Bev,Hellen & Karl for being the best company over the weekend...
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