Next stop is Blankenberge, which is on the coast of Belgium! It’s pretty near historic towns like Ghent and Bruges whilst not being too expensive :)
We got the train from Paris to Lille and then changed onto a train Belgium-bound! It was cool to hear the announcements change from French to Dutch as we made our way towards the west of the country. Unfortunately for us, we when arrived in Blankenberge it was raining in a serious way and then we had issues with the key… sigh. So we contacted the host who then called his friend over to help us. And guess what - he opened the door in one -_-. Because it was raining we didn’t feel like doing much so we headed to Aldi to grab some supplies for dinner and got a pretty good view of the tram lines - which are the longest in the world!
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| sppooky water tower |
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| the house had some cool old fashioned vibes but was a little spooky at times |
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| i made coffee in this just because twin peaks. |
We really wanted chips so we got some from Aldi to heat up but we couldn’t get the oven to work without potentially killing ourselves so we just ordered some in lol. The house was super cosy because it was raining, it was nice to be cold for the first time in a couple days.
The next day we headed over to the medieval town of Ghent or Gent. The most well known thing in Ghent is probably the Castle of The Counts which is this awesome castle in the centre of the town that was used in the middle ages. Inside we saw some amazingly decorated weapons as well as just the different rooms in the castle.
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| The illustrator Randall Casaer has illustrations and tapestry’s all over the bulding, so cool! |
We then went on a walk to the Bejinhof in Ghent which are a collection of medieval houses and a church that were once used by a female religious community. These Bejinhof exist all over Belgium and The Netherlands and some have even been rebuilt over the years. We also went to a few cool shops including one that sold loads and loads of vintage mass cards and Catholic postcards. I was even given one for free ^^
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| I had to get the St Therese cards :) |
We then walked through the city to a yarn shop where evan got some cool wool and was able to go to about five different churches lol! I am so happy to be friends with someone who doesn’t complain when I drag them into yet another church :D
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| Little wall shrines are everywhere! Secret foreshadowing for Antwerp where they are on like every street |
We then were desperate to get some food before going back so we hit up this vegan place serving versions of traditional belgian dishes. They sadly did not have the stew I was pining after but I got some tasty meatballs. Evan got the very traditional ceaser salad burger lol!
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| yum yum yum |
On the way back to Blankenberge we decided to walk along the sea front. The beach is like kind of a mess because they have all these ugly bars and stuff on the sand but it’s nice to see the sea :)…
Where to next?
