Saturday, May 23, 2015

FRIDAY AND SATURDAY IN GENT

We actually got a fairly early start this morning--9:30!

Our plan for the day:  An antique/flea market and a visit to a church in the same area.

Along the way we spotted some more street art on a building.  This one is definitely strange:


We made our way to St. Jacob's Church, and stopped in for a good look.

The Church of St. Jacob, built in 1180 on the site of St. Jacob's wooden chapel (1093)


Main altar:

Some early decorative painting remains, this is from 1579

Looking towards the organ and rose window:

Rose window:


The market we wanted to see was in the small square next to St. Jacob's.  There were lots of clothing booths, etc, but also several tables of cool vintage items & antiques to browse.  Didn't buy anything, but it's always fun to look:

After leaving the St. Jacob area we came across another market, one that we had planned to visit on Saturday.  We gave it a quick cruise-through--not much of interest.

We poked along, heading in the general direction of the apartment.  Along the way we looked at a few spots to have a late lunch. We settled on this small place, and chose an outside table.  It was a little chilly in the shade, but the view was so nice we didn't want to sit inside.



I ordered another bowl of waterzooi--it was very good!

David ordered the lunch special-lamb shank with mashed potatoes.  It was delicious.  We are so sad that we can't get good lamb like this at home.  We love lamb!

The view at lunch-David with the Town Hall in the background:


Looking the other way--nice view of the Belfry:

After our lunch we made our way home, taking a slightly different route.  We've passed this building several times, and I'm intrigued by it.  Certainly not old, but the design is interesting.  I'm guessing 1960's?


We happened to walk down the other side of the building and noticed it's lovely door:

The wood carving was really beautiful:


We spent the late afternoon and early evening just relaxing.  We went out about 7 for dinner, and decided to go back to the Greek place where we had dinner the first night here in Gent.

Of course, we each ordered lamb dishes, and just like our original meal they were delicious.

My dish--they called it saddle of lamb, but they were like tiny rolled up London broil--tender, delicious and cooked just right!

David ordered lamb cooked with vegetables, it was really good too.

We shared a carafe of red wine, relaxed and talked about what to do on Saturday.

As it turned out we stayed in all day Saturday to give my knee a rest.  Kind of boring, but probably a wise choice.

We did wander back out about 7 for some dinner, and went back to the Nepalese restaurant where we'd had lunch a couple of days ago.  We had another super delicious meal, actually the same dishes as we'd had for our lunch there.

We enjoyed our last stroll through beautiful Gent, we're really glad we've spent a few days here.  The architecture is amazing, and there's something interesting around every corner.

Sunday:  We're taking a train to Brussels--a quick 30 minute ride.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for sharing the street art. Very intriguing.... much different than other cities. The staircase in the Church of St. Jacob was so beautiful.... and the carved door? Pretty impressive! It must be difficult to be in such an interesting city and be limited by your injury. Well, my friend, there is always a different beer to sample, as well as lamb....��

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