Surprise; Belgium as a Bonus!!

G'day Mates,

When you drive f.i. 400 k's straight in Australia, you are still in Australia. When you drive 400 k's in The Netherlands, you most probably end up in Germany or Belgium, when you start at the south border, you even can reach France. AND as you have seen a few stories before, we have been to New Castle in England, that was 495 k's with the ferry but that is nearly in Scotland so London, f.i. is much closer!

So during this holiday in Holland we have been in England, Germany for the shopping of booze (see the story; Time out), now it's time for lovely Belgium!!

We are going to dazzlingly authentic Gent, (Ghent) !!

 Gravensteen, an imposing medieval fortress in the heart of the city.... 

Belgium is the best country to drink a beer, nearly every city or village has his own beer and matching glass.

Most beers are far over 5%, f.i. the Tripels, mostly brewed in Abbey's are from 8% and above.

From the year 1000 to around 1550, Ghent was one of the most important cities in Europe. It was bigger than London and second only to Paris in size.

As you can see also Ghent is beautiful with historical building like you have seen on my blog in previous stories like The Hague and Haarlem......

We chose the second half of July to go to Ghent because that's during the festivities. Danny and his girlfriend Patricia joined us.

Performances, street theatre, funfairs, concerts and more entertainment during day and night...

Lets enjoy a few, its movie time!!!!

You could even dance yourselves if you wanted....(and dare).... 

Another great performance.....(movie time)

The grey building in the middle in the background is the Great Butchers'Hall and has been built in 1407. From the beautiful wooden open truss roof the Ghent Ganda Hams are hanging, Crikey, only the smell gives you a mouth watering experience.....

At night we ate at Amadeus, a spare rib Restaurant. To be honest, they have been better in the past.  

After dinner we plunged ourselves into PARTY TIME!

Feel the atmosphere in this movie..... 

Above Ghent rises the Old Belfry, a symbol of the past. The dragon at the top scans the horizon. If the enemy was approaching, the Klokke Roeland would notify the burghers of the city.

Distinguished visitors, executions and, of course, the beginning of the Ghent Festivities were (and still are) also announced by the carillon.

Recognised by the UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. 

Waiting for our beer to come......

we also had great weather......

This I must explain;

Here we are at the concert of Slade!! Some people might remember them as a band from the seventies. Fred ordered some beer for us and got 4 glasses with a lot of froth as they do pour it in Holland. Then Fred said that he wanted beer for his money like we get in Australia, no way two fingers froth!!..... 

Haha the guy finally obeyed

Then we watched and listened to Slade.....

SLADE??  Maybe you remember now;  Movie time...

After this we did some more walking, passing great stages with music and a lot, lot of people........

After having fun we went "home" to our Bed & Breakfast Atlas;

http://www.atlasbenb.be/

Movie time

Next day Danny took the leading and had a nice walk in his mind he wanted to show us so there we went. After some more sight seeing of Ghent we arrived at this small Beguinage....

Nowadays they are busy with renovation of this Beguinage, as you can see here, far left is finished, the right side still has to be done....

 Around the beguinage pasture and the ‘Achterstraat’ are about 100 houses and 7 convents, all of which bear the name of a saint. Most of the houses have a little front yard, enclosed by a high wall and a gate with a peephole. All the houses have one storey and an attic, some of them also have a basement and a little back yard.

The little Church is finished too...

look at that wall, its nearly falling over....

Finishing our tour we went back to the B&B to have a bit of a rest and change for going out again.

We ended up in a Moroccan restaurant where they didn't serve alcohol, haha never had bitter lemon before with my meal.

Of course we had enough to drink later in the bars and terraces so we didn't get short of booze...

Time to go home.....

One last shot for rehab.....Ghent;

Cheers!