Ghent: A City of Golden Towers, Medieval Fortresses, and an Unforgettable Art Mystery

At a Glance

• Duration: Eight-night stay.‍
• Home Base: The Hide apartment, Ghent.
• Top Day Trip: Bruges‍
• Memorable Moment: The virtual reality tour of "The Mystic Lamb" painting and learning the 91-year-old mystery of the missing panel.‍
• Overall Vibe: Historically magnificent, a hub for students, with a surprisingly strong wine scene, but one that left a somewhat negative impression due to the chaotic environment.

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This Town is Special Because...

Ghent is a city of stunning architectural contrasts and history you can practically touch. You can’t truly understand this city until you know it’s a university town—there are over 83,000 students here, meaning one in every three people you see is a student! When doing my research, I was deciding between Ghent and Bruges for our hub and picked Ghent. Upon reflection, Tom and I would both choose Bruges as the hub and Ghent as the place to daytrip to.

The history is everywhere you look:

• The Towers: The city skyline is dominated by its three medieval towers: St. Nicholas Church (14th century), the Belfry (15th century), and St. Bavo's Cathedral (16th century).

• City Hall: We learned that the City Hall itself is a historical melting pot, boasting over seven different architectural styles on the outside and 51 rooms inside.

• A Sign of Wealth: Our walking tour guide pointed out that the iconic stepped roof façades at the top of many homes were a     way of boasting wealth; the stone was extremely expensive, so the more steps you had, the richer you appeared to be!

Our Home Base: Ghent

We stayed at a place called The Hide, which was set up very much like a Sonder apartment. Our room was small but felt spacious because the ceilings were so high, and it was very clean, very comfortable beds and had great Wi-Fi for us to work. The only major drawback was the noise. Although they mentioned soundproofing, our big windows on our street facing apartment at a very busy intersection, meant we were woken up pretty consistently during the night and early morning.

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Our Ghent Experience: The Day-to-Day

The Journey In (A Rushed Start)

Our arrival was classic travel chaos. We had the time and date correct for our bus from Brussels, but we put the wrong train station into our ride-share app (the Midi station instead of the North station). Realizing our mistake about 15 minutes before our bus was set to depart, we quickly grabbed an Uber, explained the situation, and the driver sped off, running a red light in the process! We got to the bus station with about four minutes to spare, but luckily, the bus was 10 minutes late, so we made it with no problem.

Sightseeing & Uncovering History

• The Free Walking Tour (Best Tip in Town): We took a free walking tour, which is a great option they have in almost every European city. It’s "free" because what you pay is simply the tip you give to the guide at the end. It was so popular—over 40 people showed up—that they had to split us into two groups! We got Kenny, who has been doing this for a very long time and was amazingly good. He took us around all the sites, sharing incredibly detailed factual stories about the city's history, alongside some funny anecdotes about how and why things are the way they are. At the end, he even gave us a list of his top recommendations. We later agreed that the walking tour was much more detailed and a better way to see the city than the canal boat tour we did later on (we wouldn't recommend doing both).‍
• The Castle of the Counts  (Gravensteen): After the tour ended, we immediately went to visit this 13th-century castle built by Count Philip of Alsace. We learned that the castle was built of stone, a sign of wealth, and was intended to intimidate the burghers of Ghent who often challenged the Count’s authority. It was deliberately taller than all the merchants' houses and was the first building in the area to feature a fireplace.

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• The Mystic Lamb: For our wedding anniversary, we visited St. Bavo’s Cathedral to see the world-renowned painting, The     Adoration of the Mystic Lamb. We purchased the tickets ahead of time and were glad we did. Others arrived while we were waiting for our specific entry time and they were told they could not get the virtual tour, only a viewing of the painting. The cathedral itself was unbelievable—we have never seen a more ornate place! We can’t recommend the virtual reality tour enough, which detailed the painting's history (ie: over 70 plants/flowers represented) and its tumultuous past, including being looted by Hitler and saved by the Monuments Men. The most fascinating story was about the still-missing panel (The Just Judges),     which was stolen 91 years ago for a ransom that was never paid, and there is still one police officer assigned to find it to this day.

• Graffiti Alley: We loved this idea! The city gave residents this alley to express themselves, promoting creativity while controlling graffiti elsewhere. The amazing art changes over within days or two to three weeks, making it a place you can visit more than once on your visit.

Culinary & Drink Highlights

• Brunch Perfection: Our favorite meal, hands down, was brunch at Stek. The menu was amazing; I had my first mocha (a     perfect blend of Belgian hot chocolate and espresso), and we wished we had discovered the place earlier so we could have gone back.‍
• Wine Scene Discoveries: The wine scene is surprisingly good in Ghent, despite it being a beer town. Most of the wine bars we went to all sell retail.
  
  • Terroir: This bar and shop in the middle of Old Town was packed. We had a great conversation with the owner, who is a WSET Level 3 holder as well, and she confirmed the local wine scene is thriving.‍
  • ONA: We found our favorite bottle here. We also learned an interesting fact: the cost for a bottle to drink in the wine bar is about $ 20 more than if you bought that same bottle for takeout, to cover the cost of staff and sitting space.
  • Parole: I loved the layout and decoration of this wine bar. We had a few of the wines by the glass to sample what he offered, but we saw a lot of couples ordering bottles and taking time to enjoy the wine and their conversations.
• Other Stops:
  • We had lunch at Steamy Windows dumplings/bao buns were super yummy.
  • For our wedding anniversary dinner, we ate at Per Bacco, which was actually a recommendation of the server at Steamy Windows. The food there was good, and the Montepulciano bottle of wine we had was superb! Tom felt his meal there was one of the best he had on our trip so far.
  • We were also told about a great tapas restaurant that we would definitely recommend called La Malcontenta. Just like in Brussels with our guide pointing out historic and local bars, we would never have wandered past this place and are so thankful for engaging in conversation with someone local to get their recommendations.

What We Loved (and Didn't)

We loved how beautiful and historically rich the city is, with the three stunning towers, the gorgeous Cathedral, and the unique architecture. We also loved the waterways and size of Ghent, making travel logistics easy, and the thriving, unexpected wine bar scene.

However, the major takeaway for us was realizing the impact of such a dense, active university population. The environment was intense; with so many bikes and people constantly in motion, we had to be extremely vigilant, watching every step and crossing. This high level of required alertness and constant dodging meant that by the end of our eight-day stay, the chaotic energy and fast pace ultimately overshadowed the charm. For future trips, we now know to better balance our stays between quieter and more chaotic urban centers.

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