We traveled to Belgium by train today. At the train station, we finally figured out what train to take only to find out that the train was cancelled. Found a new route — fun fact, when you purchase Intercity tickets they basically get you to from Point A to Point B. It doesn’t matter if you change trains seven times or one, the ticket prices it the same. We ended up changing through Rotterdam, Antwerp, and then Michelen. All pretty uneventful except we left the train in Michelen with about five minutes to change — of course we ended up on the wrong platform and had to run down a set of stairs and back up a different set of stairs carrying our luggage pushing our way through the crowd. Becky and I made it to the top of the stairs first and heard the bell ring of the train doors closing as we jumped on. Kevin and Rob were behind us, and when I looked back I expected to see the doors closing with them on the other side. Thankfully they made eye contact with the driver and he held the doors for them.
Once we arrived in Ghent, we were just amazed by the quaintness of the town. Kevin and I have been to many quaint towns throughout Europe, but this was Becky’s first one and that’s always so fun to watch. My favorite part of the town so far is that the BnB owner gave us directions to find the Bnb… turn right at the castle and make your way down the road. Yeah… we are in a town that uses a castle as a landmark. Feels way different than ‘turn right at the Dairy Queen and make your way down the road”. 🙂
First stop was to find some food…. none of us had eaten too much today with the short changes of the trains and getting up so early to catch the first train. We tried to head to a Spanish Tapas place but they didn’t open for another two hours, so we headed to find a grocery store to tide us over. Foreign grocery stores are so fun, because you never know what you are going to find. We ended up picking up some bread, butter, cheese, sausage and apple sauce — you know… the basics. Becky and Rob picked up a bunch of healthy green things, so we made sure those were in a different basket than us lol.
Finally it was time to try the Spanish Tapas. This is a new experience for us and it was really neat. Tapas are just really small dishes (which I’ve always known, I’ve just never gone to a restaurant that served them), and so we all ordered four different dishes. Becky and Rob had a bunch of green stuff again… trend? Kevin and I focused more on meat and potatoes… not a surprise! We ordered Lamb Kabobs, meatballs, fried potatoes with garlic sauce and Spanish omelette. Pretty good food and a pretty neat experience other than the sweltering heat inside the restaurant.
Needing to cool off it was time to walk around town which turned out to be just in time for the World Cup football game to start. I of all people am not a sports fanatic, but the energy in this place during this game was intoxicating. I found myself constantly peaking into the windows of the bars, and each time Belgium scored, you could just hear the entire city cheer. Kevin and I ended up stopping into a Used Book Cafe that had rigged up some tvs and were having a viewing party to watch the second half of the game. When Belgium won, the place erupted. It was so fun. The streets were then filled with fans — so many high fives, so much honking, so much yelling. You couldn’t help but be excited.
Another late night followed by an early morning tomorrow, so I better get to bed. I’m hoping all these pictures will upload tonight!
