Today was a beautiful day; 80 degrees and sunny. The old town area of Ghent is gorgeous, filled with old buildings, interesting squares and tons of restaurants. It is a short walk/tram/bus ride from our flat, so we had no trouble getting down there.
We passed the 12th century Gravensteen Castle but didn’t go in.
We actually didn’t do too much except wander the streets, watch the people, and eat our lunch in the square. While eating, a man started “blowing” bubbles and the kids went crazy.
Of course, there were the canals. We thought about a boat ride, but it would have been too difficult to get in/out of the boat.
The building below used to be a church, but now it has some kind of high-tech show. We didn’t go in.
We did stop into a couple of churches that are still working churches. First, it was St. Nicholas, an 13th century church.
Then we headed to St. Bavo’s Cathedral.
St. Bavo’s is from the late 13th century and is most known for the altar piece painted by Hubert and Jan van Eyck. The part of the cathedral that held the altar piece wasn’t open for another 45 minutes and then we would have to go in a 30-minute tour, so we decided to take a pass. Here’s a picture of it I found online.
Here are a few things we did see in the Cathedral.
Then we just wandered the streets, stopping to buy a few Christmas linens. We also got a large bouquet of flowers for Peter. He’s got a big event tomorrow and he wanted flowers. I’ll tell you more about that tomorrow. Anyway, so now I’ve got a large bouquet of flowers, several bags with the things I bought, a coat that I didn’t need any more as it was 80 degrees and a camera. In other words, I was loaded down. So, I left Peter in the square watching the kids chase bubbles and I headed home to unload.
On the way back to the tram, I managed to trip over the footing of a large piece of scaffolding and face-planted into the street. Yes, it was my turn to take a tumble. I got the breath knocked out of me when my chest hit the curb and, while I slowed myself down with my arms, my face still hit the street. Luckily, there were a couple of guys there to help me get back to my feet, but it took a couple of minutes to get my breath back.
Not too much damage was done except for a fat lip, well two fat lips actually. One on top and one on the bottom. But I chipped a tooth…rats!?! Now the tooth feels numb. I don’t know. Is that a good thing or bad? Anyway, once I got back to Peter, I got ice from a local restaurant to try and keep the swelling down. Then I went in and bought some chocolate cuz chocolate makes everything better, right?
I got 6 pieces of delicious chocolate so that should last another, I don’t know, 3-4 minutes. This stuff is amazingly good.
And because my ice melted, we stopped for ice cream. I mean it was absolutely necessary to keep the swelling down.
In spite of my fall, we thoroughly enjoyed our day in Ghent. It’s very similar to Bruges, only much smaller so it’s easy to see in only one day. If you’re ever in Belgium, I highly recommend it.
Well, it’s time to ice my face down again. And my knee is a little sore, so I’ll probably ice that as well. Then I need to pack up as we leave tomorrow for Antwerp. Have a terrific Saturday everyone. Talk soon. Love from us.
Oh my. I could tell where the story was going when you talked about going back to unload. Of course you were hurrying back to Peter. Sounds like damage was limited. I expect you’ll find some new aches over the next few days. Take it easy and definitely eat chocolate.
My knee is a little sore and I scratched the crap out of my sunglasses but no knee swelling, and I can always buy a new pair of glasses. It’s just a little hard to eat on the right side of my mouth. Hopefully the swelling and bruising on my mouth will go down in a day or two.
Lynn! Slow down! You both have now had your share of falls, but you are fortunate not to have done some serious damage. Let’s keep it that way! Yes, I agree that chocolate does cure all…..along with ice cream! Looking forward to hearing about Peter and the bouquet of flowers….
I usually have one speed and it’s fast. That’s why when I walk with Peter it’s almost painful to walk that slowly. I’m not sure I was really walking that fast yesterday; it was more of not watching my feet.
Al least you have countless treats to choose from to make the fall less painfully. Chocolate but more like a box of chocolates. You also have all the beautiful century old buildings to marvel over and take you back to another time. Take it nice and slow.
It doesn’t hurt as much today as I thought it would. It’s so puffy though that it feels really weird. And yes, the chocolate does help.