June 26 - Gent

 June 26 - Gent

Our first visit this morning was to Gravensteen, a local castle. Built in 1180, as the residence for the Counts of Flanders, it’s had an eventful history as it’s also been used as a court, prison, mint, and a cotton factory.  It’s quite nice on the outside but a little bit sparse on the inside, however, what made the whole visit worthwhile was the audio guide. Spoken by a local comedian as one of the historical counts, it was all very irreverent and really quite funny. 

Considering the weather was so nice JEM decided that we would take a trip around town on one of the tourist boats.  This turned out to be a great idea as this was a really nice way to see the city from a different perspective from what we normally see walking.  In addition the guide helped make it even more interesting as he did so in five languages, English, French, German, Dutch, and Spanish!   


Continuing on with our city tour by foot, and seeing all the magnificent buildings they have here, plus the many, many, bars and restaurants around, JEM has decided that maybe Gent is the place she wants to live after all! 😀

While out walking this afternoon we came across a local street music festival, it was great!  All a bit ‘bluesy’, ‘jazzy’, and the weather and atmosphere fantastic, I think Paul wants to live here as well! 😆



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