Gent

Once in a while we are doing weekend citytrips to break daily life and to see more of beautiful cities nearby.

This time we had booked traintickets to Gent, Belgium which is a 3 hour and 20 minutes drive from Amsterdam passing Antwerp on the way.

Gent is after Antwerp the second biggest city of Belgium with 240.000 inhabitants and it is located where the 2 rivers Leie and Schelde merge.
In the Middle Ages Gent was one of the biggest cities of Europe due to her advanced wool industry. Also flax and linen made Gent then of great importance. After the industrial revolution took place in the 18th. century in England, Gent was one of the first cities on mainland Europe which became industrialized with her cotton industry.

We actually did not really prepare this trip very well in advance, but we just strolled the cobbled streets and took a boattrip through the canals of the city and were amazed by the beauty of downtown Gent. Especially the 3 towers of Sint Niklaas kerk, the Belfort and the Sint Baafs cathedral showed their beauty not to forget the Gravensteen fort right in the middle of town.

Gent is just a stone's throw away from Amsterdam and small enough to explore over the weekend. Perfect for a citybreak!