graceandjoe-theadventures: ghent and antwerp

Still in Belgium... our next stop Ghent is a lot like Bruges - full of beautiful medieval architecture but much less touristy. Unfortunately for us, it was a stupidly hot day when we were there. Goodbye 20 degree light jacket weather, hello 36 degree hell!

St Baafskathedraal in the foreground and the Belfort at the back.

We went into the belfry, as it was supposedly better than the ones in Bruges (we only wanted to pay for one!) It was a lot of stairs, views, some cool clockwork and some history about who was making the bells. This once gold encrusted dragon used to sit on top of the Belfort - Joe didn't really like it, he thinks it looks like a flying pig.

Ghent's river banks are surrounded by very nice medieval architecture. There were lots of people just hanging out, drinking and picnicking - soaking up the sun and heat, which must be unusual for the locals.

The Gravensteen, a castle that looked straight out of a fairytale, was unfortunately closed by the time we got there!

Despite the many nice things to look at, we didn't have a great time in Ghent... A lot of things went wrong: we got on a wrong tram, got ripped off at a cafe, our hotel smelt like paint and had no fan or aircon, and the whole time in Ghent it was just so excrutiatingly hot.

Which was a real shame, I think we would have enjoyed Ghent a lot more had the weather been more pleasant.

Nevertheless, On to Antwerp...we were greeted upon arrival by the magnificent Centraal Station.

The major sights in Antwerp are conveniently connected to Centraal Station along a big pedestrianised mall.

Petro here is helpfully pointing out Onze Lieve Vrouwkathedraal behind him, the largest cathedral in Belgium.

This building behind the Brabo fountain had just about every flag in the world on it.. except the Australian flag. ( I saw two NZ flags, but no Australian!)

While Antwerp has its fair share of old architecture and cathedrals, it really stood out as a much more distinct, vibrant and multicultural city. The Chinatown near our accommodation reminded me of the Melbourne Chinatown; there is a big Jewish population with their distinct clothing and identity; People watching in the diamond district, full of businessmen, was interesting for imagining the wheeling dealings in the diamond world.

We saw this awesome installation in the city centre... it had a lot of plants and spinning things and every few minutes it bellowed out steam. It looked like something out of a Miyasaki film.

Perhaps out of guilt over the amount of mayo smothered fries we've eaten in Belgium, for lunch one day we went to a veg-heavy organic-everything cafe called Lombardia. The food was pretty good. Although when Joe asked if he could have a 'strong' flat white, he was rejected with 'we don't customise coffees.. we're not Starbucks...' lolz.

I had some chicken, with veg & sauce lumped together with lots of cheese. Pretty good, it was a surprisingly sweet dish.

Joe had a vegful burger...that thing about German e-coli tainted sprouts did cross my mind... but thankfully, he survived the sprouts!

My favourite sight in Antwerp is this street in Zurenborg and the surrounding neighbourhood, where rich people went a bit nuts with their residences... It's kind of like they wanted to build castles, but had to make do with the size limitations of townhouses. The street was full of brilliant architecture adorned with minature domes, spires and gilded statues. Perhaps because the neighbourhood was slightly further away from the town centre, it was also very quiet, almost no tourist!