I’m going to San Francisco on Sunday, so I won’t get around to posting about Amsterdam. Warnings about this being a travel blog this month were not in jest. Sorry for the wait, but you’ll get a guest column Monday from my friend John Flynn. We worked as editors at punknews.org in a time when that was a site people still went to.
A few notes before we jump into Ghent. I’m finishing Goosebumps tonight with Adrianne. My highlight so far has been the stickers on Logan’s dresser:
I LOVE Woolworm, a great Canadian rock band. Cub wrote the song “New York City,” famously covered by They Might Be Giants. Whoever is in charge of music on that show is really on point. They have exceptional taste and skirt an issue most nostalgia laden shows have, they show a breadth of bands but don’t rely on the heavy hitters. This isn’t the Forrest Gump soundtrack, there are some very deeper radio cuts on here.
Goosebumps isn’t quite on the level of the “Who’s Afraid of the Dark?” reboot, but I have enjoyed it more than Mike Flanigan’s “Midnight Club” based on the work R.L. Stein’s contemporary Christopher Pike. The show sometimes falls victim to baby’s first horror show, but it is a show for children based on a kid’s book series, so it is forgivable. Not everything can be Gravity Falls.
Persona 5 Tactica came out today and I’m withholding playing because I am leaving on Sunday. I am a man of great restraint.
Finally, here’s the bulk of what I’ve been listening to lately:
Belgian and Australian indie/alternative rock. I haven’t finished fleshing out this playlist, but if you’ve got a hankering for newer rock bands this has sated my appetite.
Okay, pop culture house keeping is out of the way, let’s get on to the important stuff.
Honestly (I Don’t Feel Like Dancing)
While I’d love to build suspense, I’m going to just lay it out for you. My opinion on Ghent was overwhelmingly positive. To the point that it is one of the best cities I’ve visited in the world. While more experienced travelers might scoff at that, I have a decent number of countries under my belt (at least 14) and 30ish states so I feel confident in saying it was a great city for me.
In a lot of ways, it reminded me of my chosen hometown - Richmond, Va. Our first night there was uneventful, we got off the train and made our way to our hotel. Hotel Astoria is not a converted church, but it did have a two person jacuzzi tub. And, anything that makes me think of the Goondocks gets a positive notch. It was a little farther out from the city center, but it gave us a good feel for where we would likely be able to afford to live were we to immigrate there.
Still needing dinner, we walked to a takeaway pizza place. Adrianne got some pasta, I got a pie for myself and we sat in the wicker chairs in the restaurant enjoying small town Belgian life. Questioning each other, our consensus was that we did not have enough information on Ghent to make an informed decision yet. We’d wandered a smaller neighborhood near the university.
This is where I would have organically told you that we made up our minds the next day, but instead I will tell you that we walked 10 miles and wanted to come back AGAIN. Our day in Ghent had us pondering getting a hotel for another night. Or taking the train back for a day trip. Seriously. We ultimately decided against it (with a satisfying conclusion to another thread throughout this journey), but it was hotly debated.
But first, here’s some cute shots of our hotel:
One of our first stops in Ghent was to World’s End Comics. I wanted a board game souvenir and had struck out in Brussels and Ghent. We basically mapped a path that would allow Adrianne to see some of the street art in Ghent and I would get to do some shopping/sightseeing. I did not take photos of the street art, but maybe Adrianne can do a guest post one day and share her collection of photos. It was impressive and everywhere.
I did capture these two gems however:
World’s End Comics was amazing. One of the top board game stores I’ve visited in the world. Lots of space to play games, drinks (soft and hard) available, snackage and an impressive collection of new and older games for sale. It also, as the name might indicate, has a massive collection of comic books, graphic novels and manga. Plus, this is the entrance:
Okay, I’m in. The staff was awesome, the collection was incredible, the music was great (until Puddle of Mudd came on, perfection eludes me once again) and we had a great time just existing in the store. They had a healthy clearance section and games that are out of print in the US. The cashier did warn us that our game was in Dutch, but it is a Stefan Feld game so largely language independent. We picked up White Castle (no, not the burger chain) and Amsterdam, Feld’s Macao reskinned city series. We figured it was appropriate because we were going to Amsterdam later that week.
This next part might come as a shock, but I failed to take a lot of pictures in Ghent. In part because I was so overwhelmed by just how cool everything was. In part because we saw a building we believed to be a castle. Doing some research, we uncovered Ghent is home to Gravensteen Castle. So, we walked to the building we thought was the castle.
Explored around it for about five minutes before coming to the conclusion that it was a school. A school I should have taken a lot of pictures of and failed to, because it was amazing. There are children who take going to school in castles for granted. I know, because some kids take everything for granted. I am rarely envious, but on that day I’m sure I glowed green.
Lucky for you, my wife did take some pictures -
But still none of that school. Guess you’ll just have to go for yourself.
We debated walking to the actual castle. I did some research, it is a must see castle. I remember mentioning it to Marina when we first discussed coming to Belgium. Okay, okay, let’s make the trek. Please believe me when I tell you I could write novels about Gravensteen. It was love at first sight.
Gravensteen still doesn’t seem real. I felt like I was in a video game, or a fantasy novel, or my dreams had come to life and I was walking through them. We spent HOURS there and I told Adrianne I would have come back just to wander the castle again. I didn’t even need the excellent guided tour, which is narrated by Wouter Deprez. That tour was informative, hilarious and did not shy away from the dark history of the castle, its inhabitants, the region and the nation.
Even the things Deprez mentioned that seemed maybe too fairy tale held up to further research. He was thorough, honest and concise. I need to warn you that I am about to post a lot of photos with the understanding that this is a fraction of the pictures I took. As much as I love Neuschwanstein, Gravensteen was a functional castle. It held off armies. It was home to some of the earliest incantations of chivalry. It had a functional moat.
I have more photos and videos on IG and TikTok and I would encourage you to watch. The pictures also don’t do it justice. This was as close to a religious experience as I’ve ever had outside of a concert. Were we done? Nope! As sad as I was to leave Gravensteen behind, we still had Ghent to explore.
We also visited a very cool bookstore called Bookz & Booze. The proprietor was engaging and helped me find a book by a Dutch author that he thought I might like. Adrianne got a bottle of gin for Marina called Ghentist that was delivered via canoe to the store, 24 bottles at a time.
We hit up a couple of record stores still in search of Teen Creeps records. Our first record store recommended we go to Music Mania, which was a very cool store with a helpful clerk. I bought a record without checking it out because he had been so helpful and he suggested we check out Vynilla. Adrianne graciously accompanied me.
Vynilla is owned by Bob who was unable to get us the record, but he did some searching and uncovered that BXL in Brussels might have the records. Brussels! Bob was also very kind and helpful and gave us our first real chance at getting one of these records.
A sidenote, I had messaged the band on Facebook asking if they had suggestions but did not hear back from them while we were in Antwerp/Ghent. Alas! By the time we made it back to our hotel room to gather our things we had to head out. The hotel closed at 8 pm and I think we gathered our things around 6. We were exhausted and ready to head back to Brussels.
This was just the highlights of the trip to Ghent for me, but we did eat while we were there and generally had a great time. I would say if you’re around Northern France, The Netherlands or Belgium, Ghent is a must see city. I loved it, Adrianne loved it. They produced my current favorite Belgian indie rock band. They have the sickest castle. Great retailers. It is the most vegetarian/vegan friendly city in Belgium. The architecture is amazing. A+ city, would travel again.
When I get back, Amsterdam is on the docket along with notes from our trip to San Francisco for Thanksgiving. Damien and Ripley will be standing guard at our house, never fear. For now, I’m going to finish doing laundry and dishes. Tomorrow I have to pack!