Ghent, Belgium

Shane and I finally made our first trip outside Great Britain. We went to Ghent, Belgium for the weekend! For our first trip, we wanted to do something easy. Ghent is a small city located about 30 minutes outside of Brussels, a quick two-hour train from London.

The beauty of an easy trip is being able to the take the train; however, catching our early morning train to Ghent did not go as easy as planned. The trains have changed a bit since I was last in Europe (in college) and now require that you go through security before boarding the train. This may have always been the case but I didn't remember - it is full-on airport security nowadays. Security closes 20 minutes prior to departure so when you arrive at the station 20 minutes prior to departure, it is not ideal. One guard was kind enough to the let us through but told us that we needed to hurry. Hurry we did; so fast that Shane attempted to walk through border control without giving them his passport and I dropped my train ticket running along the platform, but we made it.

The first thing on our itinerary for the weekend: waffles. And they did not disappoint.

We then set off to explore the city. Ghent is small enough that you can walk the whole city, and the sun was out, so we took advantage (we haven't had much sun in London).

On our DIY walking tour of Ghent, we first did a tour of the Castle of the Counts. The Castle of the Counts dates back to the 12th century. The majority of the rooms were empty but a few rooms had old torture tools that we found quite disturbing. The best part of the tour was the view from the top.

After the Castle of the Counts, we viewed the Ghent Altar Piece (what Ghent is known for!) at St. Bavo Cathedral. The painting was beautiful and impressive, however they did not let you take pictures.

We decided the Ghent Altar Piece would be our last tourist stop for the day and popped into a Bierhaus to start our mini-Belgium beer crawl. The first place we stopped was on the canal and we grabbed a spot by the window to admire the view. We then moved to a pub where if you order the largest beer that they have, you have to give them one shoe. When you've finished the beer, your shoe is returned. We decided against the gigantic beer, but we were able to witness a handful of people who were sitting around us with one shoe.

We found Ghent to be the prettiest at night - lights illuminate the buildings along the canal.

The next day we wondered around the city some more and tried a few more Belgium beers before catching the train home to London.

Despite the minor issue with our departure, we'd say our first trip was a success!