Ghent is Great

What's the best thing to do when your husband is really busy at work, you haven't caught up on laundry from your last trip, and your house is in shambles? Go on a weekend getaway!

I've wanted to go to Ghent, Belgium since last fall, when a friend told me it was one of his favorite cities. I love Antwerp, and I was looking for another relaxed, quaint place that would make a good overnight trip. Check! We invited some good friends, I found us a hotel (in an old monastery!), we put gas in the car and away we went.

You could definitely tell that our hotel used to be occupied by nuns. The rooms were...sparse...but comfortable enough. The old chapel is now used as an event space, and the outside of the building is gorgeous: vines, a garden courtyard, vaulted ceilings. The city itself is kindof a combination of Amsterdam (with canals) and Bruges. There are several large churches, and the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb lives there. It's a beautiful 20-panel paining by Van Eyke in the St. Bavo Cathedral. I cannot get enough of old European cathedrals- they're all so massive and open and humbling. To think that no one who worked to construct such a masterpiece ever lived to see them from beginning to end is amazing.

You cannot go to Belgium without spending some time (most of your time?) sampling their beers. The four of us hunkered down in a bar with a 250-item beer menu and got to work. My favorite of the night was definitely the Gentse tripel, followed closely by Bink Donkel (but only because it has a funny name).

Sunday we planned to visit an abbey on the way back to Germany, but we happened to stop in a store to buy some beer glasses, and the owner asked if we were in town for the beer festival. Ten minutes later we were on our way to St. Niklaus for Zythos Beer Fest, and it did not disappoint. We were such amateurs- there were connoisseurs with charts to record their impressions, hats with beer tops sewn onto them, and people tasting beer like wine. Just a little tip from me to you: plain Lambic beers are disgusting. Consider yourself warned.

Conclusion: Belgium is on my top 5 country list.