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Every year, my wife and I make a trip abroad during our holidays. This year, due to circumstances beyond our control, we had to stay at home. Despite the bad weather in July and August, we managed to make some short trips in our own ‘neighbourhood’ (in fact Larry Buck’s report on his visit to Belgium in May 2007 gave us the idea of doing something similar). So here are just some pictures to give the impression that we had the holiday of our life while in fact we only made a drive for about twenty minutes…



An overview by daylight of the 'Graslei' in Ghent.




Same place about three hours later. The tower with the lit clock is part of the neogothic postoffice. The small tower on the right belongs to the same building. The houses you see are authentic and restored; they mainly serve as restaurants and bars. There actually live people in these houses (mostly upper floors).



A closer look on the roofs and the tower of the Saint Nicolas church behind them. When looking attentively you can distinguish five different styles.



A detail of the tower of Saint Nicolas. The three figurines probably represent three apostles.



One facade in detail (more or less).



Another view from some different angle. The fun part of this tour is you can walk everywhere near the waterfront. Absolutely gorgeous.



Another favourit: the 'Gravensteen' or the castle of the counts of Flanders. Can be visited, but not at night...



My personal favourit: Saint Michael's church and Saint Michael's Slope (read: bridge). Fantastic scenery IMO.

All pictures were taken by my wife, no photoshopping whatsoever.

OK, that's it for today. More pictures will follow. Feel free to add comment.

Greetz,

Wim

Wonderful photo of St. Michael's.

Great pix, Wim!
I went to high school in Brussels (where my folks bought our first nwe piano) - it was great to see some Belgian scenery!

I must go!!

beautiful shots.

I spent some time in Belgium a couple of years ago. Did you make it to Brugge?

Utrumpet,

Brugge is only a one hour drive from my doorsteps. So you go figure...
But I have no snapshots to share ... yet

Greetz,

Wim

Did you see anything like this while you were there?

Rose Nyland\'s Granddaughter\'s public debut

Beautiful photos - beautiful place. I love the illumination in the 2nd to last.

Funny - I lived in Europe for two years and never made it to Belgium. Is there even such thing as Belgium?

At the Cape Cod party, one of the hosts had a Belgian friend who was present. We had a funny conversation about Belgium and how there's a running joke about whether it exists and apparently a bumper sticker proclaiming it does.

USAPianoTrucker :

what school did you go to ? Geography definitely wasn't your cup of tea !
This lady is Clauddia Hirschfeld who happens to be born in Germany and has lived for some years in Austria. Norbert could tell you everything about her if he wanted to.

Kathyk :

Belgium was created in 1830. At the moment there's a lot of suspense on Belgium's future: depending on the outcome of the negotiations on the formation of a new government Belgium will either cease to exist or it will get some political reshaping. Either way it's indeed a very weird country...very difficult to explain to foreigners (sometimes I don't understand things myself )
Nevertheless i'm quite happy with it : we have a lot of foreign countries so we can travel a lot

Greetz,

Wim

The most important thing in the country of course is the racetrack at Spa! Let's local regs doesn't keep F1 away and they resist the "lets make it "safer" and 1 million times more boring" bug. Best track in the world, bar none (esp since they ruined Assen).