Places to Stay
HI
Hostel - Belgium Draecke
Camp Blaarmeersen
B&B Huize Clara
Places to Stay
The super helpful tourist office arranges
bookings for free. They’re based in the Belfry in the centre of
town. They also have lots of helpful information including restaurant
listings, maps and walking tours.
HI Hostel - Belgium
Draecke
Camp Blaarmeersen
B&B Huize Clara
Things to
Do
There are a surprising amount of things to do in Ghent.
The tourist office sells the Ghent Pass for €12.50 which covers 15 of
the towns museums (including the Museum of Fine Arts (M.S.K) is closed until
2008 for refurbishment so technically 14). This is only worth it if you’re
a) under 26 and b) visiting on a weekday. Most museums are severely
discounted for young people. As an example the Gravensteen is €6.00 for
over 26’s and €1.20 for under 26’s. Most museums are free on Sunday
mornings.
They also provide this super helpful booklet
listing out all the museums in town. Some of the best are listed
below:
The best way to orient yourself in Ghent is to find the
Belfry. You can’t miss it - it’s huge! English language tours are at
2.10, 3.10 and 4.10. Don’t be late or the tour guide gets mad! The
big bell sounds on the hour on the second floor.
Cost €3.00
Allocate: 45
minutes
St Bavo’s Cathedral is the huge church opposite
the Belfry and
on the right of the concert hall.
It’s home to the Adoration of the
Mystic Lamb,
which is actually much cooler than it sounds.
The
trick is to get in there before the coach tours.
Fortunately the
Japanese are allocated 15
minutes off the coach to see it and then have to
hop back on again, so if you can wait out the crowds you might actually get to
see it. The audio tour is included within the €3.00 admission but as the
total listening time is 2 hours you might just want to listen to the panels that
you’re interested in. Whilst you’re there it’s also worth checking out the
Roman crypt at the back too.
Cost: €3.00
Allocate: 1 hour
The Design Museum Ghent is a mixed bag. It’s a cross
between the Design Museum and the Geffrye Museum in London. If hanging out
in Ikea is your idea of fun, you’ll like it. If not you’ll find it deathly
dull. Some of the special exhibitions however are far better than the
permanent collection. If you’re lucky you’ll see the Kitsch, Camp or
Design exhibit which is hilarious.
Cost: €2.50
Allocate: 30
minutes.
Website: http://design.museum.Ghent.be/
Gravensteen is the big castle in the middle of
town. Officially it’s now a weapons museum, but don’t let that fool you -
it’s still a very romantic medieval castle on the inside.
Cost
€6.00
Allocate: 1 hour
I loved the Aijin House. It's an
interactive folk museum and is surprisingly big inside. We spent 3 hours
looking round before they politely reminded us that it was closing time!
Free guided tours are at 11am daily.
Cost: €2.50
Allocate: 1.5
hours
Places to Eat
The locals eat in Oud Beginhof which is
the top right
hand corner of the ring road. Just wandering the back
streets is totally worth the detour, but be warned that
not all menus
are in English!
‘t Klokhuys Brasserie offers an excellent selection of
regional dishes, huge portions and excellent quality.
It was hard
not to go there every night!
Cheapest main dish: €15.00
Address: ‘t
Klokhuys Brasserie, Corduwaniersstraat 65
website: http://www.buikskevol.com/
There's a
waffle stand in the town centre near the castle which is just divine. I
could quite happily live off of them for weeks on end. I'd be fat, but
happy
Brooderie is a lovely cafe that serves fantastic cakes, beers and
coffees. It's on Jan Breydelstraat 8 near all the western stores and the
multi-story car park.
Loempia Kippenboutjes Olijven is famous for it’s
Max
Blond beer. It’s brewed in house and to stop you
stealing the
glass you have to give your shoe in
advance of getting your beer! It’s
1.2 litres and costs
€8.90. As an oddity, they don’t let you play
cards in
there. Not even solitaire. Weird. They also serve
bar
snacks.
De Witte Leeuw is just off Koren Markt by the canal
was disappointing. It offers cheap tourist food. You
get
what you pay for I guess. Some of the meat
served was raw. I’m
not talking blue, I’m talking raw. Probably best avoided for the
sake of your health.
Address: De Witte Leeuw, Graslei 6
Day
Trips
Brugge can be done as a day trip from Ghent, or vice versa, I
think it's about 40 mins by train.
Dutch Railways is www.ns.nl Anyway if
you consider Haarlem, Delft and Brugge as daytrips, it would be: Schiphol -
Amsterdam - Antwerp - Ghent - Antwerp - Schiphol
Last updated: May
2007
Ghent
