A scrumptious storybook called Ghent

What can I tell you about a place that is every inch the definition of fairytale architecture? A place filled with turrets, dungeons, wizard-hat spires, dragon-legends and troll-whispers and other words that make you go weak in the knees with the romance of it all. A place so wildly picturesque that thinking of it comes with a special kind twinge - right there in the feels. That every time you come across the word Ghent, you will relish how your Airbnb host pronounced it - Ghaw - almost a guttural exhale, all the way from the lungs, scraping a bit of the throat; a sting that reverberates all the way to the heart. So strong, that you feel in your chest, this longing, every time you utter this name that rhymes with “aww”.

How do I put such a place into a ten things to do list? How do I define the faraway look in Sahit’s eyes, his special Ghent sentiment? We spent less than a day at Ghent, and here I am in 2020, not quite recovered from this heart welt of a city I visited back in 2016. Fabrice, our Airbnb host, recommended Ghent over Bruges with all the ferocity of his small dramatic eyes, small dramatic face and small dramatic frame. To say that we were smitten by this man is a gross understatement. This French-accented tiny ball of energy who kept an impeccably tasteful apartment. He looked like a Bond villain and he spoke like one and of course, he was in theatre. He had an entire wall filled with records and books - really good stuff. And he was kept by a cat called Murdoch. Now tell me, did we stand a chance? For some odd reason I was convinced he was acquainted with Milan Kundera. Smitten!!! Though I will have you know that he IS friends with Pierre Marcolini and sent us there for our must-take-home Belgian Chocolates.

Anyway Ghent it was and that’s where we would spend the last day of our first trip to Europe. It is a very picturesque forty-minute train ride away from Brussels and there are many trains (one about every twenty minutes). Old town Ghent is a bit of a walk away from the station and by all means, don’t get so distracted that you blindly walk into the cycle track. We got told off by a dressed-for-Sunday matronly cyclist, who shooed us from her path with a swipe of her very manicured, plump pointing finger.

Old Ghent opens with all the drama made famous in the movies. You turn a corner or you hit the crest of the hill and a whole new world opens up before you with a glorious chorus of uplifting violins. In this case, it was reaching the end of a brick-house street and lo, behold a skyline of tipped-spires, gothic steeples and gingerbread facades and every other medieval thingamajig! I sent up a thousand thanks to the best friend who had suggested Ghent to begin with (a place hitherto I hadn’t even heard of).

First impression of the place? Ghent is lousy with dragons. Every souvenir store is like a shrine to Daenerys and her (not quite) blessed fruits of her womb. We decided to have something to drink before we ventured out into the hot sun, so hot that it could have been tempered in the kilns of a dragon’s breath. The cafe was right opposite the famous Belfry of Ghent and we sat there gaping at this Gothic edifice that’s watched over Ghent since 1380.

Things to do in Ghent 1. The Belfry

Entry: €8

Once we were suitably fed and watered, we decided to go right to it - the watchtower that offered the bestrews of Ghent. We had no intention of climbing stairs on a hot day. So we were extremely pleased that the Belfry had a lift. The lift takes you to the first floor and then you’re in the very digestive tract of a medieval fortress. Exposed stone, varying levels with flimsy railings that fill your head with unpleasant possibilities of falling face-forward down a couple of storeys - you get the picture! It houses a mini museum of sort with a chorus of bells and a lesser, rustier version of the dragon that keeps watch over the city. The aforementioned bell chorus (all of 53) properly known as the carillon, rings as a prelude to the mighty hourly chiming of the Roland, a bell so mighty, that it may have given someone a heart attack if it went off without a warning. But these are things you breeze by, stopping only to take a weird picture or two. The hero is the view waiting for you outside.

The real treat is when you get to the balcony and you see the city like its beloved dragon sees it. You can’t help but feel a surge of power, like you are a monarch, looking from your royal, filigreed balcony to a beautiful kingdom below. Somewhere in the square below, a street musician was playing her cello, turning the air a bit rarified with every move of her bow. If you are pressed for time, this is also a great way to cover a good part of Ghent. So that’s what I did - I took in Ghent like a queen does - from her regal balcony with a cellist playing for me.

Things to do in Ghent 2. St. Nicholas Church

The imposing facade of St. Nicholas looks less daunting from the Belfry. It’s as though the Belfry constantly wants to put the lofty church in its place - the central tower of the church was the resident watchtower until the Belfry came along. I hear that the interiors are quite impressive. But from where I stood, this grand church with its excessive turrets looked like a mighty church organ. As impressive as it is, the church is not so daunting that people didn’t think anything of lounging on its lawns on this hot, late summer day.

Things to do in Ghent 3. Stadhuis

Another stately building that takes up your view from the Belfry balcony is this chunk of elegance. It sits there, arch and regal, with its facade that looks like a perfectly coiffed powder wig - Ghent’s Town Hall. This Renaissance-styled facade with its clean lines sits in odd contrast to the opposite facade - which is pure Gothic excess. Two eras literally seep into one another, and it is here, in this gorgeous anomaly of architecture with its stained glass windows and labyrinthine corridors, that most locals get married. Imagine that, a typical Ghent “city hall” wedding casually out-jousted all the romance of a good percentage of destination weddings!!!

Things to do in Ghent 4. St. Bavo’s Cathedral

St. Bavos stands tall like the proud revenant that it is. Its troubled past has seen much looting and plundering and damaging of things precious. Today it holds a proud collection of religious art. If you see a beeline of tourists headed for one particular chapel - they’re all going to see the The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb by the Van Eyck Brothers (god, I love Flemish phonetics - always makes me think of woodland creature sounds) housed in a special chapel with a paid entrance. The rococo pulpit in all its flamboyant “oak, gilded wood and white and black marble” majesty is a sight to see.

Things to do in Ghent 5. St. Bavo's Abbey

If there is one place that makes me wish I’d done a little more research and less flaneur in Ghent, it is this one. I really wish I’d gotten to see this place where the past haunts with rather heavy feet. The Abbey of St. Bavos was dissolved in 1539, when Charles V ordered the destruction of the abbey as response to the Ghent uprising. The Abbey is open for only a few hours in the afternoon in a week. Nature has completely taken over its open cloisters, covering the grey stone in a perpetual underwater-like, green light, where sunbeams and shadow eternally dance.

Things to do in Ghent 6. Gravensteen

Entry €10.00

Medieval isn’t all romance. There’s a lot of head-rolling and torture chambering as well, and this castle otherwise known as the Castle of Counts is an edifice to the dark side of politics, court intrigues and unrestrained power. The audio tour diffuses the dark subjects with some funny narration done by a comedian. But of course there is no laughing away execution and tossing random prisoners into the moat! The Castle is every inch the daunting threat it was built to be. Count Philip of Alsace clearly believed, and was proven right, that stone and iron made a far stronger “You don’t wanna mess with me” statement than just mere words!

Things to do in Ghent 7. Patershol

This is the part of Ghent that leaves you helplessly gasping at the memory. The reason why your eyes inexplicably well up every time you tell people “You simply have go to Ghent!” The reason why you cannot put into words a fitting answer, when the aforementioned person asks “what is it about Ghent that you like so much?” Patershol is a part of the town where your eyes and heart are treated to an experience of a lifetime. Almost four years now, and I still remember the quirky, quaint buildings gleaming in sugar-spun sunlight. The smell of food and the mysterious, shadowy alleyways. It was like I’d stumbled into Diagon Alley, and I had to watch my purse in case a deft troll-boy nicked it from me. Patershol is the beating heart of medieval Ghent and its magic evades the mundanity of words.

Things to do in Ghent 8. St. Michael’s Bridge

St. Michael’s Bridge is that portal that takes you from the present to the past. It is the point from which you can see Ghent in all of its medieval splendour. It is the proverbial yellow brick road, the rabbit hole, the point where you can stand and catch a summary of Ghent in one quick glance - Graslei and Korenlei, the Old Fish Market, the Gravensteen, St Michael’s Church, Het Pand and the tall boys, St. Bavos, St. Nicholas and the Belfry standing in a row!

Things to do in Ghent 9. Graslei and Korenlei

So beautiful that they lend the lilt to the word quay, the banks of River Rhys is a lovely stop for a bit of a breather. The gorgeous building facades are love notes from history, high recommendations in the art of preservation. To call these facades elaborate is to speak in gross, unimaginative understatements. The look like they were cut from lace or piped by the fussiest confectioner. You can probably take a canal cruise (€7.50) from here. This is great place to sip on some of that really famous, really delicious, goes-down-real-smooth Belgian beer.

Things to do in Ghent 10. St. Peter’s Abbey

If you want to include vineyards (of course, no medieval dream is complete without wine) and expansive gardens, you must visit, even if it’s a little out of the way. The now defunct Benedictine Abbey was founded in the 7th century by St. Amand, the very one who christened the city Ghent.

There’s always a bittersweet goodbye from every city we have visited. Ghent was no different. While walking back to the station, we saw a bookstore with a delicious-looking signboard. It was called Limerick. It was so random how we thought we should just go kill some time there. To our amazed delight, the store keeper took us to the backroom filled to the gills with typewriters. The collection belonged to the Dutch writer Willem Frederik Hermans, who was so obsessed with them that he would haunt flea markets and spend a lot of time lovingly restoring them. Standing in a room full of typewriters - it is one hell of a stark admonishment to a writer who wasn't really writing at that point in her life. It made me aware of the time I was wasting and that I had to get back to that thing I formerly referred to as my raison d’etre.

Quite a fitting farewell from a place that had just told us a whole lot of stories, don’t you think?