Just a fifteen minute drive from the Dutch border into Belgium is Gent, an amazing city where you can enjoy lots of culture, artitecture and of course what Belgium people do best, drinking special abeer.
For this occasion I went to a small bar called the Dulle Griet. Not only is it good looking on the inside, it is also known for its special beer glasses.
This is a 1.2 liter beer which contains 7 precent alcohol. To drink this beer you need to follow some ground rules. At first you need to be eighteen years old to be able to buy alcohol at a bar like this.
Secondly, you can only buy one person. There's no further explanation for that other then this is their rule.
And finally, to make sure you take good care of these special glasses they ask for one shoe of each person that buys that beer. The shoe will go into a basket they lower from the ceiling.
This bar only should already be your reason to visit Gent as well. How ever Gent also has one of the biggest festivals in Europe with live music. 'the Gentse feesten' or the 'party of Gent'.
Friday 13th of July till Sunday 22nd Gent is host to hundreds of artist in all sorts of music genres with 1.4 million visitors in ten days. This creates an amazing atmosphere.
If you'd like to stay in Gent you better hurry with your bookings because most spots in town are already booked. My tip would be to stay in a different city in Belgium and take the train for a few days. If you stay in Antwerp you're close to Gent and you have a second city to explore.
If you go, let me know. Who knows we'll meet.