Day 6: Ghent: Belfry

We left the Castle of the Counts and started to walk to the Belfry when I noticed a street with a lot of graffiti on it. As we got closer, my hunch was confirmed, it is Ghent's famous Warregarenstraat. We strolled through this tiny alleyway, and back again to the main area. I predicted it would appear on our Dark Side tour that night, but I was wrong.

The Belfry was around the corner. Through a comedy of errors, we kept missing the entrance and overthinking it was in the Christmas Market. As we bought our ticket we were given the good news that unlike the Belfry in Bruges, this one has an elevator! What we were not told is we had to climb up a narrow spiral stone staircase to reach the elevator. We were also not told that everyone was encouraged to take the elevator UP and walk back DOWN. As it was not very crowded, and the stone stairs were slick since it was raining, most people opted to take the elevator DOWN, too.

Even though we had just visited another belfry, I wanted to visit this one because it boasted a dragon. I still miss Sandy and Glinda dragons. We enjoyed listening to the music from inside the other belfry, so we waited for the 4 pm ringing. We did not see the bells chime. Unlike in Bruges, this one did not list their playlist. It, too, changes every two years and debuts on Easter. 

The Belfry of Ghent does not go all the way to the top. It ends at a balcony that goes all the way around giving nice views on Ghent. I suspect the views are even more magnificent on a sunny day, but we had more of a typical Belgian weather day.

Here are my Belfry pictures:

By this point it was pouring outside. I was glad I had packed my "magic stick that wards off rain" (a.k.a. an umbrella). It was the only time it came out on the trip. We ducked into House of Waffles for a treat. While it was a nice place to warm up, it did not live up to its hype.

After our snack, we noticed the rain had stopped so we walked around while waiting for our evening tour to begin. Ghent is another very photogenic city. Unlike Bruges, though, we did not see a bunch of Instagrammers.