Hello people and pinmapplers!
The weather is changing, and with winter, I share some winter trips, those that are made looking at the weather forecasts, with umbrellas in hand and warm, especially in cities where the weather is humid, changeable and it rains a lot. That happens in Belgium.
And we tour Belgium starting with perhaps not the best-known city but the one I like the most, Ghent, a city with a lot of history, since a great emperor was born there (Charles I of Spain and V of Germany), we also discovered treasures in its churches and cathedrals, and we enjoyed its architecture from different periods and its good atmosphere.
Because it is a student city, due to its university, but at the same time it preserves its past in a calm way, as if everything was always there and nothing happened.
We can see beautiful churches with high towers, adorned with trees and a winter sky, the sun does not always shine but sometimes a lightning bolt does appear surprisingly and illuminates the panorama. But it lasts a short time.
Although it does not matter because they are all majestic buildings, both the Cathedral of Saint Bavo and the Clock Tower, a clock that has surely kept time for many years and centuries, and is still present there.
Also the beautiful Church of San Nicolás, which contains important works inside... and on the outside it combines perfectly with the rest of the environment, with the rest of the important and relevant buildings and with all the facades that remain from other times on cobbled streets.
Everything is mixed with the present, with the electric trams and the branches of the trees with the electrified cables and the omnipresent bicycles of so many young people who enjoy this peculiar scenario in their daily lives.
And suddenly the contrast, a hidden but very popular street, because on this graffiti street people paint freely, it is like a large urban canvas for those who want it and that historical setting becomes an open-air urban modern art museum . Tourists cross the street without knowing where they are going and take photos while others walk along it for another day, perhaps contemplating one of his works. It is a different street without a doubt and with a strange name that my friend had to write to me: # Werregarenstraat.
Ghent by night. The modern once again gives way to the past, quickly, as quickly as night falls, and the not-so-good lights prevent us from enjoying again the beautiful architecture of a few centuries ago, possibly from the 16th and 17th centuries when they began to be enriched with commerce and houses were competing in decorations and gaining space around the river that crosses the city and gives it more humidity, and quite a bit of fog at times. But no matter it is still a beautiful city, enchanted as we cross a medieval bridge.
And there is also a lot of medieval appearance, such as the castle of the Counts, Gravensteen, which over the centuries has been used for many different things, but currently renovated and restored without losing the essence, it is a historical museum and also of the weapons they used for torture, some of those rooms are somewhat unpleasant to be honest, but
not on the contrary, the views from above.
We climb to the top between the raised flag and the walls of the towers to see the entire city, we see in the distance the church, the towers and everything else, charming houses that do not compete in height but in a homogeneous harmony of a story, or movie setting. A city where after visiting many places, we feel like having fun, there is a lot of atmosphere and of course, a lot of Belgian beer.
