Belgium, part 1

Belgium held some strong allure and it was the first place we went after leaving Saarbrucken.  Was it because it functioned without a government for 541 days starting in June 2010? Was it the creep/disgust factor after reading King Leopold's Ghost (great book)? Rubins? The Brueghels? Belgium kind of seems like a middle child, wedged between siblings France, Germany, Luxemburg and Netherlands. We were intrigued, not disappointed and surprisingly effective tourists. Antwerp was the first stop, a central spot to explore the area.  Although we appreciated being allowed 9 nights on A and W's couch in the tiny dorm apartment, surrounded by small plastic farm animals, dog toys, a kitchen table and furniture waiting to be moved from their temporary to permanent apartment, we were longing for a more barren space to sleep.

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We found the ASH hostel in Antwerp. We like hostels (private rooms, not the dorms) because they usually are very simple, clean,  have access to a kitchen and hostels are almost always in great locations.  This was 2 blocks from an awe-inspiring central station and walking distance to almost everything, well for us almost everything is walking distance.

After the Lenten period of 40 days in quiet Saarbrucken seeing the same 10 people over and over, sidewalks full of people in Antwerp was actually a welcome sight.

Our first morning we left Antwerp arriving in Ghent at St Pietr (north) station. Thus starting here, and eventually leaving from Ghent Central (south) station to head for Bruges,  allowed us to walk from one end of the city to the other- residential, old, older, newer and University.   It was nice because, like Strausburg (https://thechosenfugue.blogspot.com/2018/09/day-trippin.html   ), this city with a rich gothic city center was still a modern vibrant city on the edges.  The Cathedral and other churches were, like most European churches, awe-inspiring for many reasons but Ghent's churches all had a twist, particularly the whale skeleton hanging in the Cathedral (part of the "out of the box" art installations).   Could this be the source of all those Mrs. Paul's fish sticks, eaten as a child on Fridays?

 Everytime you turned a corner in Ghent, there was something just waiting to be seen.

 Even Father Damian of leprosy fame in his home church. As we were leaving Ghent, another great thing happened, really good Mexican food.

Next up was Bruges, which was also really beautiful,

but we kept thinking of the movie "In Bruges" (very well liked) and were still kind of in-love with Ghent, but Bruges was still very much worth the trip.