Arriving in Belgium

In October 2005, we decided to visit Belgium and Luxembourg as side trips from Paris and Disneyland. That proved a good choice, and both countries surprised us.

As soon as we landed at Orly Airport, we rented a small yet functional Renault Modus and off we went. We drove through the beautiful region of Champagne in France till Lorraine, where we found a hotel for the first night. The next morning, Luxembourg was just "around the corner." Luxembourg was a day trip between France and Belgium. After visiting the city of Luxembourg, we drove to Antwerp, our base to explore a bit of Belgium. In between we made a brief visit to Dinant—wow!!

When planning the few days in Belgium, we came across the doubt: Brugge or Gent?

Brugge seems so lovely in all those pictures around the Web; nevertheless, some people mention Gent as the hidden gem. It is also so beautiful, but with the major advantage that most tourist buses head to Brugge. Our choice was made: Gent it will be. And we don't regret that choice at all. Don't get me wrong: if we'd had the time, we would have visited both!

A rainy autumn day, which seems to be so common in this country, welcomed us to Gent, but that didn't let us down and we kept going. Anyway, there is a lot to see inside buildings, even if travelling with children: going up the tower or visiting the castle provides a shelter against rain and amuses both children and grown-ups.

A day trip from Antwerp to visit Gent didn't give us much time to discover the third-largest city in Belgium, but on the other hand, it was more than enough to fall in love with it.

As the highlights of Gent, I'd mention:
- the medieval houses
- the canals
- the belfry
- the St Bavos cathedral (my favourite amongst all the churches I visited in Belgium)
- the castle of the counts

Gent's Tourism Office website is http://www.gent.be/gent/english/index.htm, and what I find most useful about the website is that you may download PDF brochures with info and maps, avoiding a visit to the tourism office itself. Anyway, if you need to visit the tourism office, you might find one by the Belfry. The staff is nice, but you might need to wait a little bit for your turn. The brochures and maps provided are free of charge. By the way, when in Brussels, if you ask for a simple map of the city at the tourism office in Grotte Markt, you must pay €0,50 for it. Okay, it's not much, but I don't remember having paid for that kind of stuff at the tourism offices before Brussels.