About half way between Brugge and Brussels is the town of Ghent. There are many trains between the cities and, since it was not out of the way, I had planned to spend the day there on my way to Brussels. Unfortunately it was another rainy day and this played spoilsport with my plans.
I got a late start and reached Ghent around 1130am. I had booked a quick canal boat trip to get a feel of the city before exploring further and took a local bus from outside the station to get to the jetty.
It became obvious as soon as I was on the bus that this was a MUCH bigger city than Brugge and 1 day was nowhere near enough to experience it.
Again there were cobbled streets and my poor bag suffered greatly having its wheels bumped along the roads, but I managed to reach the jetty relatively unscathed!
The boat ride was a bit disappointing in as much as it was a short loop and not much of the city was viewable- we did however see some of the lovely homes and building along the canal as well as the huge fort. I was a bit distracted, however, as I was oddly fascinated by the mechanism lowering and raising the boat umbrellas as it passed under the low hung bridges- way better than holding individual umbrellas aloft as most other boat companies were doing!!!!
On the boat Under the bridges Natural umbrella Life by the canal
The Fort Canalside City Center Life
It had been drizzling throughout and started raining more heavily as I got off the boat and it was quite a dash to get to shelter with my injured bag. I grabbed a quick sandwich from a deli, looked around at a couple of interesting buildings near me and decided to call it quits and head back to the station for my trip to Brussels- Ghent would have to wait for another visit.
My preliminary impression as I left the city was that Ghent seemed like the bigger cousin of Brugge. It may have more experiences to offer but, as with larger cities, it lacked the charm and quaintness of Brugge- if you can visit only one, hands down I would recommend Brugge!