Holidays and Travel: Ghent 2007

~ beetleypete

As nobody can travel at the moment, I am reblogging this post from 2014, about a short but very enjoyable trip to the city of Ghent, in Belgium. Other than Jude, I don’t think any of you have ever seen it.

beetleypete

When you are thinking of a destination for a three-night break, it is unlikely that Ghent will find a place on your shortlist. All the old favourites will be considered; Paris, Prague, Amsterdam, Bruges, and Barcelona, alongside others, perhaps further afield. But what if you have already visited these before, possibly several times? And what if you don’t want the hassle of flying, and getting out of Central London, to an airport?

In 2007, I was going to be fifty-five years old. Julie had already taken me to Rome, for my fiftieth birthday, and wanted to mark the occasion this time, with another short trip, that did not waste too much of the time in travelling. She asked if I had anywhere in mind. I had never been to Budapest, Vienna, Lisbon, or Venice, so these places were all considered. I also added Ghent to the list of possibles, as…

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22 thoughts on “Holidays and Travel: Ghent 2007”

    1. Ghent is similar, but ‘cooler’, and less touristy. Both are worth seeing in the same trip, dear Cindy. 🙂
      (Also Ypres, where you can see the Menin Gate, and visit the nearby WW1 battlefields and cemeteries. Incredbly moving.)
      Best wishes, Pete. x

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  6. Lovey write up, Pete! I have to come back to this post as I was not able to “like” the original post. WP is so annoying (at least on the Safari browser) not allowing likes and straight forward comments when you follow a link. Living in Bonn it was easy to go to Flandern for a short break, it’s well worth a visit. We had actually planned to combine a trip to Germany with a stopover in Ghent and Bruges for a few exhibitions this spring.
    Glorious weather today, just to your liking 🙂 – have to finished the lawn in the front now. Not going out today – there was a big increase in cars driving on the coast road yesterday compared to the previous days.
    Take care and stay safe.
    Warm greetings to the three of you from the four of us. x

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  7. I once quickly passed through Belgium on a train. I was traveling from Paris to Bielefeld. At that time, I had a friend who lived in nearby Detmold. That visit in 1994 was memorable, as we drove to Berlin, a city that far surpassed any expectations I’d ever had. En route, we saw Russian tanks pulling out of former East Germany.

    I found images online of the various places you mentioned in your story. If I ever visit Belgium, I’d love to spend a day or two in Ghent!

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  8. I was lucky enough to have to go there on business back in about 1991-2 [I don’t think I still have any documentary evidence to make the date more accurate], although only for one day, and I can’t even remember if I stayed overnight, can you believe! I drove there from Leeds, where I was then working, in a company car, and it was a very enjoyable trip: I was very favourably impressed with the place. I always find our habit of anglicising foreign place names very odd [although other languages do the same thing, to be fair], but I suppose if we used the local spelling of Gent, people would only pronounce it “Jent”! 😉 Cheers, Jon.

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    1. Bruges and Ghent are well worth seeing. Brussels is impressive in parts, but a big city obviously.
      When I lived in Londo it was easy to get the Eurostar train from the nearby St Pancras station. These days, it would be a mission from Norfolk.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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