Gent, Belgium

The day started out with us going to McDonald's for a light breakfast but it was closed.  Do not open until 9am.  So we went the the place next door Exki.  Here we had tea for me and cappuccino for Bob.  Plus we each had a chocolate croissant.  All very good.  It was spitting a bit so we returned to the hotel and worked on our computers.  I did the blog and Bob did pictures.

It appears there are two different spellings of Gent.  I had be spelling it with the h as Ghent.  I stand corrected and now will spell it Gent.

We decided to take a walk since it had stopped raining.  We walked to St. Michael's Church to find it closed.  We then decided to walk to the shopping area.  As we walked along, we found we went the wrong way and we were in the Vrijdagmarkt area.  Found the other beer joint that serves over 250 kinds of beer but we felt it was too early for a beer.  I told Bob it was never too early but we did not go in.  Made our way to the shopping area and saw the Opera House and the Justice Hall.  We now knew where we were so we walked along the canal and stopped for lunch.

The square where we found out we were in the wrong section of the city.  Not really wrong, just we had not intended to be here.

They sell 250 kinds of beer here.  At least, we now know where it is.  And how to get here.

All of the restaurants have outdoor seating and some with heaters.  So we stopped and sat near a heater only to be surrounded by smokers.  So we asked if we could eat inside.  Had a nice lunch and then back to the hotel and a nap.

On our way to the shopping district, we passed city hall.

Another view of city hall.

City Hall.

Opera House.

Over the door of one of the guild houses.  This would seem it was the home of a ship builder or sailor.

The red brick with the golden swans is the face of the Marriott Hotel.  It is nice that they kept the original front and built a modern hotel in the rear.

After our nap we continued working on the blog, pictures, and such.  It is nice to have a free day to play catch up with everything.

I put the TV on and watched the prolog to a bike race.  Might be in Switzerland.   They are speaking Dutch I think.   At  least I know it is not English.  So mute the screen and just watch the bikers.

Not sure where we will have dinner but will report later.