WHO KNEW that the Tour de FRANCE took a tour thru Belgium!!??? Well, apparently not Jack and me. We happened to be in Ghent at the end of Stage 2 of the Tour. We don’t really care a whit about bicycle racing, so we NEVER thought to look at the Tour when planning our trip. Ah… what we know now AND how it REALLY doesn’t matter!
We arrive in Ghent, slightly bummed after Brugge – it had been SUCH a wonderful city/experience. We’d booked ahead in Ghent for our accomodations, so we navigated the trams and found ourselves in Kornmarkt – about as close as we could get to our B&B. Tired, hungry and slightly lost, we stopped for a nice lunch on the market AND A BEER. Fortified, we found our lodging.
THIS place was not NEARLY as good as our room in Brugge. It was inexpensive, located above a bakery, and close to the center of town, but… still a bit sketchy. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve stayed in FAR worse (and far better)! Tired and full, Jack insisted (to my great and unabashed chagrin) on a nap before we started out into the new city. He snored, I crocheted.
When we finally headed out, Jack plotted a course to a restaurant/bier bar, Aba-Jour, in a slightly out-of-the-way part of the city. It was drizzling off and on during our walk there, but the place was wonderful, LOADS of beers and wonderful food cooked with the local beers. Our table overlooked one of the (ubiquitous) canals, and we watched the rain on the water, and tried to figure out how some of the buildings stayed upright.
The next day, we were forced to move from a lovely waterside terrace into the Bierhaus due to plummeting temps and HAIL. Yes, HAIL. Luckily our haven from the weather had lovely beer (HMMMMMMM, sensing a theme?) and Jack had a wonderful rabbit stewed in Chimay beer.
By the time we went back to the room to put on warmer clothes, Jack was in nap-mode AGAIN. (I am not much of a napper, so his propensity for napping occasionally irks the living daylights out of me – especially when we are traveling and there are *things*to*do*. Yes, I am wound too tight, on occasion)
When we set out for a couple of the more far-flung bierhaus’, we did think it prudent to ask at the tourist office if there was an easy way to get to some of these places – because walking seemed impractical. It was a GOOD THING we asked, since one of them was in the middle of the area of the city closed off to public transportation for the Tour de France. We decided to strike out on foot to the closer place.
**Tourist moment**
On our way to the Trappenhuis, we made about an hour detour into St. Baafskathedraal to see the van Eyck altarpiece, “The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb“. It was INCREDIBLE.
We found Trappenhuis and loved it! While sampling and discussing beer, an Austrialian street performer, living in Ghent for the festival season, joined us to compare beer notes. A bit later the (now) three of us were joined by an American who was cycling around the Low Countries sampling beers. It turned into a great session of drinking and discourse. We’d all heard of, and wanted to visit, another establishment, Hopduvel, so we went our ways with the vague promises of seeing each other later at Hopduvel.
This was in the middle of the “Tour” area, so Jack and I walked the 30 minutes to get there. (This was probably a GOOD thing, as we’d already been drinking a little, and were headed for more). When we arrived at Hopduvel, we were greeted raucously by a group of Belgians who had “adopted” the cycling American that we’d met at Trappenhuis. The Belgians had come from a Tour hospitality suite, and were determined that we would have a good time. MUCH DRINKING ENSUED.
I can’t really say much more, except we had a marvelous time, laughed and joked, and eventually got thrown out as the pub was closing. We’d expected to go in for a beer or two, we were there for somewhere around 3 hours, with “friends” we’d just met. It was a great, and totally unexpected, experience.
We were having such fun in Ghent, that we decided to stay one day longer. This meant moving into different accomodations. Our “new” digs were in the finished attic of an artist’s flat. Very odd – especially the trapeze hanging above the bed! Our day was one long meander around the city. We stopped at more beer houses, and even a Scottish whiskey bar! The Glengarry has ~300 different types of scotches. One flight of 10 to 14 year olds was all we could handle. If we’d known or were going to be in Ghent longer, we’d have spent more time in this place. The owner is a Scotch writer for multiple publications, has been a guest distiller at one of the large distilleries and is an overall fun and interesting person.
What a great experience. Ghent, which was not high on my list of places to go, gets gold stars as a destination, Tour de France or not!