Belgium was one of the new countries on my European trip this year, and with only three and a half days to explore, I had to be selective. Rather than book multiple hotels and relocate every day, I based myself in Ghent and focused on there, Bruges and Brussels. 

I caught the train from Amsterdam on Monday, passing through Antwerp on the way. Antwerp train station is enormous and beautiful, although slightly less charming when some of the escalators and elevators aren’t working and you’re dragging a 25kg suitcase behind you.

I’d chosen Ghent because it sat roughly between Bruges and Brussels and I figured it wouldn’t be quite as busy as either. If I did the trip again, I’d probably stay in Brussels, simply because there was a bit more going on there, but I had no real regrets.

I got into Ghent around two, which gave me the rest of the afternoon to explore the Old Town. I checked out the Belfry with its giant dragon on top, St Nicholas’ Church (skipped the Van Eyck) and St Michael’s Bridge, then wandered along the canal.

I stopped for a spritz and ended up chatting to a guy sitting at another table who’d come over from Aberdeen. Completely random, but a nice way to spend an hour. He also gave me a tip for a Vietnamese spring roll place nearby called Knees to Chin, so I went there for dinner. Pretty tasty, especially the duck roll.

The next day was more Ghent.

I started at Gravensteen, the big stone castle in the middle of the city, and picked up an audioguide. I dutifully listened to every entry for the first few rooms before becoming increasingly frustrated by the slow pace and poor jokes and eventually just skipped to the tracks I actually wanted to hear.

I feel like each track on an audioguide should only be about as long – or maybe slightly longer – than it takes you to cross the room. If the room is tiny but the track is four minutes long, that’s a fail. The castle itself was pretty cool, fair amount to explore without needing to invest too much time.

After the castle, I went on a boat cruise through the canals, which was much more fun. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy a good boat tour.

The guide gave us just enough information to keep things interesting, including the fact that every year when university finishes, students apparently toss their bikes into the canal. This is the tradition. It’s bloody stupid, but there you go.

Who gets rid of a perfectly good bike?

The city fishes them out each year – otherwise the canal would presumably become completely clogged – and repairs and reuses the ones it can. Seems like everyone could save themselves a lot of trouble if the students just donated the bikes in the first place.

The tour also gave me a glimpse into the various ways Ghent is trying to keep its historic buildings useful. Like just about every old town, it has to find ways to maintain and restore buildings that are expensive to look after, so adaptive reuse is everywhere.

One castle is being converted into apartments (I doubt they’ll be available for affordable or social housing), the former meat market has become a bike shelter, and one old church will soon be a McDonald’s, which can apparently afford the €16,000 monthly rent.

After the cruise, I went in search of cuberdons, purple cone-shaped sweets also known as “Ghent noses”, which the guide recommended as a local specialty. (For some reason I didn’t have Belgian waffles or French fries while in Belgium so cuberdons was it for the local fare.)

Cuberdons have a hard shell, a soft centre and taste a bit like the giant jelly babies you get in the UK. Extremely sweet, but I liked them. The 15 I had to buy lasted me a couple of days.

After that it was more wandering around before getting back to the hotel, hitting the gym, and going through readings for my graduate diploma – all while enjoying a couple of Aperol Spritzes.

Ghent turned out to be a good place to base myself. Pretty without being overwhelming, lively without feeling chaotic, and full of canals, towers and old buildings.