In Zeebrugge

Wednesday 11 June 2025

Between Ghent and Bruges we had a few hours to kill and, as I wanted to see the sea, I suggested a walk in Zeebrugge.  The Belgium coastline is not one to die for, or, indeed, make much of a detour for.  But detour we did and we walked a short Zeebrugge history trail.   Although Zeebrugge has as much history as everywhere else, there isn't much left standing.  

Zeebrugge obviously has lots of maritime connections, as seen by this lovely front garden.

We strolled around the harbour area and stopped for a drink in the sun.  

Visserskruis, Fisherman's Cross, was erected in 1936 in memory of those fisherman lost at sea.

I spotted all sorts of interesting boats, a geophysical survey vessel, retired light vessel, Westhinder II built in 1950 and a rather nattily painted ferry.

Zeebrugge isn't large and primarily functions as a terminal, ferrying people, cars and millions of other goods in and out of Europe.  We passed trains carrying 100s of cars to the port, and discovered that there is actually a class of ship that is designed just to carry cars (of course, I should have known that, I just never thought about it) - it's called a PCC, pure car carrier.

Zeebrugge isn't really a tourist town, but I did discover a little tourist spot ;-)

Off to Bruges now we go...

In Ghent (Gent)

Sunday 08 June 2025

After a day or so in Luxembourg - waving off the girls and Mark on the train on the Saturday, and fond farewells to JC's family on the Sunday - we drove up to Ghent.  We'd booked a super lovely hotel on the canal and it lived up to its marketing.  We arrived with my bouquet and the ring balloon, to a beautifully decorated room (complete with globe) and opened our cards/gifts.

We enjoyed our initial wanderings of the canals and street art.

Graslei on the west (below left) and Korenlei, opposite on the east of the River Lys, were just outside our room.

Monday 09 June 2025

We awoke to see there were no tourists.  "Wake up JC!" I encouraged sleepy, "coast is clear".  So out he scurried to nab a few tourist-free shots.  Here he is.

First up for our tourist trail was the Castle of the Counts.  This is one of the few medieval remaining fortresses in Flanders. 

The cameraman at large...

Great views from the top.

Next we enjoyed a boat trip.  We'd bought Gent cards which included a little water excursion, so I was certainly up for that ;-)

I loved the little nesting sites they made for the coots.

We popped into St Bavo's cathedral.  The main draw for this is the altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers, but we weren't keen to pay to see the immersive experience.  Most (all?) of the churches we saw were in gothic style.  

Then it was off to climb the Belfry to get more views.  This is the back of St Nicholas' church.

When in Belgium eat frites and drink beer ;-)

We spent our days visiting sights with lots of wandering around in between.  With my sciatica, sitting wasn't on my agenda, and we had a few trails that helped us discover Ghent, including the wonderful graffiti alley.

We, well, mainly JC, wanted to capture Ghent at night.  This took some time in arriving as, being summer, it wasn't fully dark until after 2230.  Well past my peak hour, but I did stay up this once.

Tuesday 10 June 2025

We took the water taxi down to the MSK, the Museum of Fine Arts.  I think we spent about an hour or so here but, sadly, I didn't take any pictures as there was only about one painting I liked.  This has further reinforced JC's view that my art education has been seriously lacking.

St Peter's Abbey obviously interested me a little more as I took some photos, and it had an amazing painted ceiling in the refectory.  You can see it wasn't super sunny, but dry, grey weather is perfect for strolling around.

We stuck our head into the next door church, Our Lady of St Peter's.  It must have had a decent ceiling too.

We took the water taxi back to the centre and I loved this tunnel on the Reep canal.

I wanted to visit Handelsdok, the historic docks of Ghent following this 7.5 km trail.  It turned out to be fascinating, particularly as someone had decided to collect disused cranes from around the region, turning this into the largest crane museum I know.

The first one we came across, was an ST1 cargo crane, dating from 1983 and 55 m tall.  You can even climb it.

The one JC is parked on below was the smallest and oldest one. It's a hand crane dating from 1870 and has a lifting capacity of 3 tons.  And the grey one on the right is a crane cab from about 1925.  It is notable for being one of the first with electric propulsion.  

I do like a bit of industrial heritage.

Wednesday 11 June 2025

We left Ghent today but not before sticking our head into another church - trust me, I'm not subjecting you to all my ecclesiastical photos.  This is St Nicholas.  And time to say farewell to the lovely Ghent.