Ghent is a lovely Belgian town that isn't as busy as Bruges but, according to Boff, "shits all over it" (a phrase he had to translate for the lovely lady who checked us into Hotel Flandria. Gotta love Australian idioms).
We spent a typical day there: took a canal tour with a guide that spoke five languages (Flemish, French, English, German and Spanish—the Italians on the boat had to content themselves with written guides) then visited the Gravensteen, a proper medieval castle with proper gap-toothed parapets and proper slitty-windowed turrets.
Photo of the day is of one of the busier squares from the top of the castle. You can see the steep pitch of Belgian roofs and a tram for good measure.
We also visited STAM, a museum on the history of Ghent that was interesting in some respects but baffling in others. For example, they spent a couple of rooms explaining the theft of a panel of The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb and about the same amount of room explaining Ghent's role in the Industrial Revolution.
We finished up at Citadelpark where there was an art installation with headstones of famous art museums (The Museum Graveyard project by Leo Copers, apparently) before we caught the last train to Lille at 8pm. A short, satisfying Flemish fling.
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