We decided that we wanted to bring some Belgian chocolate back to the States to share with family because it really does seem to taste better. However, our available weekends were booking up quickly so on short notice we slipped away on the last Saturday of November for a day trip back to Belgium.
To try something different we drove to Ghent instead of Brugge. To be honest, we expected basically the same thing in Ghent as we found in Brugge, chocolate and lace, but when we got there it was completely different.
Our first impression was not that great. We almost decided to just drive the extra 45 minutes to Brugge. But at the last minute, we decided to give it a shot. We parked the car and started walking. Jacob needed to stretch his legs, too.
We soon discovered that Ghent is quite charming. Where Brugge is authentic medieval Europe with chocolate, lace, castles, and everything very,very old, Ghent is like a cross between medieval and modern. At first we didn’t see any “old Europe” in the city, but after walking around a bit we found it interjected within a modern city infrastructure and soon discovered its unique charm. I think the modern-medieval look could be awful (like a city that can’t decide what it wants to be), but Ghent managed to pull it off.
As we were walking, we ran into Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). Sinterklaus has many helpers (lots of Black Petes) who help him deliver gifts to children in Holland on December 5. Pete is black because he slides down chimneys and gets covered in soot. Sinterklaus and his helpers arrive by boat from Spain on November 17th. After that, you never know when you’ll run into Zwarte Piet, they are everywhere. We happened to see them in Ghent passing out crackers and gift certificates to children.
There were two main differences between Ghent and Brugge. First, we only saw a couple of lace shops and they didn’t have nearly the selection as we found in Brugge. Second, we only saw a couple of chocolate shops. Apparently, not everywhere in Belgium has lace and chocolate. Because of the lack of chocolate shops, we walked into the first one we found. As it happens, this was one of only two true chocolatiers in Ghent (they actually make their own chocolate on site). Jackpot! The store just smelled yummy!
While we probably prefer Brugge, Ghent is lovely as well. On the way home, we needed to stop at IKEA. We ended up eating dinner there (they serve Swedish meatballs that are tasty) and got some cute pictures of Jacob being silly in his highchair.
To try something different we drove to Ghent instead of Brugge. To be honest, we expected basically the same thing in Ghent as we found in Brugge, chocolate and lace, but when we got there it was completely different.
Our first impression was not that great. We almost decided to just drive the extra 45 minutes to Brugge. But at the last minute, we decided to give it a shot. We parked the car and started walking. Jacob needed to stretch his legs, too.
We soon discovered that Ghent is quite charming. Where Brugge is authentic medieval Europe with chocolate, lace, castles, and everything very,very old, Ghent is like a cross between medieval and modern. At first we didn’t see any “old Europe” in the city, but after walking around a bit we found it interjected within a modern city infrastructure and soon discovered its unique charm. I think the modern-medieval look could be awful (like a city that can’t decide what it wants to be), but Ghent managed to pull it off.
As we were walking, we ran into Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). Sinterklaus has many helpers (lots of Black Petes) who help him deliver gifts to children in Holland on December 5. Pete is black because he slides down chimneys and gets covered in soot. Sinterklaus and his helpers arrive by boat from Spain on November 17th. After that, you never know when you’ll run into Zwarte Piet, they are everywhere. We happened to see them in Ghent passing out crackers and gift certificates to children. There were two main differences between Ghent and Brugge. First, we only saw a couple of lace shops and they didn’t have nearly the selection as we found in Brugge. Second, we only saw a couple of chocolate shops. Apparently, not everywhere in Belgium has lace and chocolate. Because of the lack of chocolate shops, we walked into the first one we found. As it happens, this was one of only two true chocolatiers in Ghent (they actually make their own chocolate on site). Jackpot! The store just smelled yummy!While we probably prefer Brugge, Ghent is lovely as well. On the way home, we needed to stop at IKEA. We ended up eating dinner there (they serve Swedish meatballs that are tasty) and got some cute pictures of Jacob being silly in his highchair. 