Rosetta: Belgium - Brussels and Ghent

            My first view of Brussels was from the train window looking out on the cityscape. Tall buildings, shops, and some graffiti were all I saw on the train towards Muriel’s house as the sun set and Charlotte and I sat on our third train and last leg of the day’s journey. We arrived at the Ottignies train stop just shortly after nightfall and found our way to the exit where Muriel and Kenza were waiting to give us a ride to their house.  After a quick discussion I convinced them that I did indeed want to speak French with them. Speaking English to students and English teachers all day, as well as my stint in Helen’s house, had left me feeling a bit lacking in the French-speaking department. I had a fabulous dinner of chicken soup, watched a bit of Harry Potter (in French), and went to bed under one of my grandma’s homemade quilts that Muriel provided to make me feel more at home.

            The next morning we watched a little more of the Harry Potter film and then we walked around Louvain-la-Neuve, went to the pharmacy, scoped out the movies at the cinema, and walked along the campus. Kenza had girl scouts at 1:00 so Muriel gave us a ride to Brussels and Charlotte and I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Brussels with the help of the directions Muriel had given us earlier and a city map. My favorite part of the Brussels excursion was in fact the Belgium Waffle. We had a nice walk around two of the different areas in Belgium and saw some big buildings, then we stopped for lunch at a Greek restaurant and each had a Pita. After lunch we found a kiosk selling waffles. Some people had waffles on plates covered in melted chocolate and powdered sugar but we decided to just go for a plain old waffle in our hand that we could eat as we walked. It turns out that there was no need for chocolate or sugar on the waffle. It was already very sweet and warm and delicious. I don’t think they use the same batter for waffles here as in the States, in fact once it had cooled a bit, it seemed more like the texture of a croissant than of a waffle. It was so good I had trouble walking and eating it at the same time because all of my attention was on the delicious waffle I was eating.

            The next day we had decided to go to Ghent. Muriel stayed home so she could take care of some things, so it was just Charlotte, Kenza, and I for the trip. Muriel had made us a very specific list of trains we’d need to take to get to Ghent as well as walking us into the train station and buying our tickets for us. Kenza, being under 12 rode free. Everything was super clear and easy and after helping Kenza with part of her math homework on the train we arrived in Ghent a little over an hour later.

            Brussels was nice in a big city sort of way but Ghent was just gorgeous. I am not often impressed by old towns because I was exposed to a lot of things at a young age and now when I see old towns I sort of just think, ‘yep, that’s old alright.’ But Ghent was really wonderful.  When we got off the train, we pulled out our map and picked the nearest park and headed towards it. The first thing I noticed outside the train station was that if I wanted to steal a bike, this would probably be a good place to do it. There were literally thousands of bikes left outside the train station most of them not even chained up. They were all leaning one on the other and they circled the entire roundabout (I didn’t know at the time but on the platform waiting for our train on the way back we would see a parking lot in the back of the station that was solely for bikes and was packed full of row upon row of them).

We never did end up finding that park even after asking three different people for directions (none of them had the slightest idea because they were all just visiting Ghent like we were).  Finally we ended up taking a trolley to the center of town. Up until then, Ghent had seemed pretty normal (aside from the bikes) but as soon as we stepped off the trolley in the center of town all that changed. The street was cobblestoned and the square was surrounded by old buildings. There was a church on our right, a bell tower just in front of us, and off to our left a ways a cathedral known as the cathedral of counts.

We spent some time trying to find the information office so we could have a good detailed map of the area and ask what we should see while we were there. On our search for the tourist office we stepped into a church because it was pretty and impressive. It was the Church of Sint-Niklaas. I have been in a lot of churches and seen a lot of statues but this one amused me immensely. The statues of saints were all in a monotone light gray and were fairly normal and what you’d expect save for that each one had in his hand an item in bright gold. There were saints with swords of course and crosses and a chalice and a book but the one that really made me smile was the one that was holding a very big, gold, saw. I also saw one that was holding what appeared to be a golden square (you know, that instrument you use in carpentry that looks like a big ‘L’ and you use it to make sure that what you’re building has a 90˚ angle).

We finally found the tourist office. Muriel had given me a tourist guidebook for the town but the map was a bit small which was why were looking for the tourist office in the first place. According to my small map it looked like the office should’ve been right behind this tall bell tower. We asked several people where it was and got different and confusing answers. The best one was when I was standing just in front of the bell tower and Charlotte and Kenza had stepped inside to see if the office was inside, and I asked a passerby where the tourist office was. She told me it was ‘just in that building’ pointing to the bell tower right next to us, then she chuckled with her friend and walked off. I went up the stairs to find Charlotte and Kenza walking out of the tower because that was not were the office was. We all went back in anyhow and asked the man behind the desk and he explained to us very nicely that the tourist office was in the same building but around back. So we exited, circled around, and finally got a map and a good walking route to follow.

Our route ended up taking us over the river that flows through Ghent and as Kenza pointed out, it is reminiscent of Venice because the houses butt right up against the water. It was absolutely gorgeous and the weather could not have been better. We walked for a bit and then stopped for a bite to eat. That was about all we had time for since it was Sunday and if we didn’t catch the 4:30 train we would have to wait for the 6:30 train and that wouldn’t get us home until after 8. We ended up getting home around 7 anyway though because our first train was late which meant we missed our second train and had to wait for the next one half an hour later and then that train was delayed while we were on it. But we did finally make it back home, all in all it was a quite a good day.