Ghent, Belgium

 

Ghent LOVES their bikes!  We left the train station and in every direction there were thousands of bikes in the middle of the street.  If you didn't get out of the way of the actual bikers then you would be run over!

 

We visited the Museum voor Schone Kunsten (Museum of Fine Arts) and the SMAK or Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (City Museum for Contemporary Art).  The art at both places was very.... interesting. Above, I am actually sitting on a

chair (Which is part of the art) in a room which I believe is considered the piece of art.  There were paintings and normal sculptures but a lot of it was like this.

 

Other pieces of art like the one above, was completely disturbing.  This is a room full of random images and paintings and splattered paint with furniture and a 'Nazi' mannequin hanging above the head of a wild wolf.  There was also a lot of art that included the human body and it's functions.... I'll let you interpret that however you like.

 

The canals were gorgeous!!!!!

 

Jeff & I at the castle we toured.  We spent over an hour exploring the rooms and dungeons and views from the castle.  The toilet that they used to use was just a hole on the outside, top floor.  When you looked into the hole you saw all the way to the ground.  It was called the Gravensteen, from the middle ages, built in 1180.

 

Notice the roof of each house has staircase shape edges. 

 

This is ONE picture of one of the two cathedrals we visited .  This photo actually looks like I took a picture of a photograph but this is the actual alter of the cathedral - breathtaking.  Ceilings were extremely high and it was so cold! (impossible to heat such a large building)

 

Typical scene which we walked by while in Ghent.

 

Kristine & I in a small square in the residential area.

 

This was the inside of a meat and bread market which they have every Saturday.  Kristine and I are standing below the chicken that is hanging.  This chicken is not sold - as we looked closer at it there was mold all over it.  But it did not stink up the barn the market was in....

 

This was a light show which travels from city to city. We caught the end of it as we were leaving Ghent.  It was pretty cool how they could illuminate the building like they did and for the amount of time they did it.  Plus they did it on an older building so it made it even more beautiful.  I was told by a good friend from home that the light show was in Brussels, I believe in November.