Ghent, Belgium

Group of chaps going for a weekend in July, coincidentally the same weekend as Gentse Feesten[/url] starts,
The main draw for us was Beer,

Anybody visited Ghent? Suggestions of Bars? food?

Not been for a few years. Food and beer all excellent. Beautiful city and, being in Belgium, is cool as **** in my mind*.

*bike racing, beer, chips. What’s not to like?

Ahem. ** Bike racing, asphalt rallying, beer, chips.

Not necessarily in that order.

Will tell you after Easter, staying there for RVV.

Eldest daughter going at Easter for a rowing camp…. hope the weather’s OK.

Went back in November, are you driving? Will dig out the main places we went.

Loved it!
We spent most of our time here.
http://www.waterhuisaandebierkant.be/

I don’t actually recall what or where we ate in Ghent at all over 2 days, probably on account of spending most of the time in aforementioned bar.

If you haven’t already booked accommodation I highly recommend here. Newly opened when we went 18 months ago so will still be pretty new and fresh. Great location, friendly owners, lovely building.
http://www.hosteluppelink.com/

For other good bar suggestions, try Ratebeer Ghent list.
http://www.ratebeer.com/places/city/gent/0/23/

Lovely city. Try and take/hire bikes if you can, it’s so quick to get around. Totally alien experience actually, bicycles have priority everywhere which drivers actually respect!

Plenty of touristy stuff to do if you’re up for that (cathedral, van eyck and clock tower are well worth it)

Recommend De Superette for dinner – great pizza and buzz

Also the famous bike shop Plum is awesome

Really nice place. One of my favourites. Great to chill eat and drink there.

Got some Garmin routes going south of Ghent. Most head off for the cobbles and the big names, Kwaremont, Paterberg, Koppenberg, Muur and more.

oldgit, willing to share the gpx files ?

I’d be interested if you were, cheers.

Lived there for a couple of years. The feste is full of late nights and lots of locals enjoying themselves but the live music ain’t great. Visit the cycling museum in oudenarde run by Freddie maartens and from there the route of the tour of Flandersis waymarked, well worth a ride. Oh and there is a bar in the square that will ask you for a shoe as a deposit if you order a certain expensive beer ( the glass it comes in is unique). Lots of micro breweries in the outlying villages as well..
Have fun!

oldgit, willing to share the gpx files ?

I’d be interested if you were, cheers.

As soon as I can fathom out how to 😳

I once famously asked where the museum was.

Went many years ago, don’t remember much as I’ve never been quite so drunk….. I do remember beating some USAF guys at downing glasses of very good beer…. Couldn’t do that now 😳

are you driving

£80 RTN on Eurostar, International travel via train and it only takes two and half hours! Was never a question!

If you haven’t already booked accommodation I highly recommend here

Sweet! this is where we’ve booked! 12 Bed dorm, Is far cheaper than anywhere else and it looks great,
Out of interest, it says No eating drinking in the dorms (apart from bottled water), How strict are they on this rule?

Try and take/hire bikes if you can

It’s a given really!
Do you know if they do those gimmicky Beer/bar Bikes?

Oh and there is a bar in the square that will ask you for a shoe as a deposit if you order a certain expensive beer ( the glass it comes in is unique)

I love little quirks like this, do you remember the name of the bar/beer? I guess half the fun is exploring!

Can’t wait! What are the people like? Need to brush up on my dutch!

>Waterhuis aan de Bierkant

Cracking little bar. De Koninck was my favourite Beer

Try the FLemish stew at Restaurant Du Progres on Korenmarkt. Wonderful.

You could try having a beer in ’t Velootje, possibly the worst bar in the world. There’s no signs, the owner opens when he feels like it, serves you whatever beer he feels is appropriate and charges you outrageous prices. I thought it was awful, my mates thought it was great

Used to go for work – it’s a great place, but we used to get shown around by the people we were working over there with or just wander around aimlessly until we found somewhere that looked OK – it generally didn’t take long.

I did find a thai restaurant down a small road and then through a court yard that was absolutely amazing – the food was fantastic. Would be worth trying to sniff out, but unfortunately I don’t have anymore details. Bit rubbish!

If you are staying in a Holiday Inn make sure you go to the right one – there are two (I think one is called Holiday Inn Expo, or something). We found this out the hard way after a nightmare journey once, only to find we’d got a taxi to the wrong Holiday Inn!!

A cramped old Bike workshop turned bar with a grumpy man that serves random beer?

SOLD!!!

I was once working near Zeebrugge and the festival started while we were there so we hitched a ride with some local staff and 3 days later had missed our flights home had no money, not many memories , but the ones i had were fantastic ,this was in 1997 and the displays and bands and beers were epic. It was basically a 2 week 24 hours a day mash up .

The Waterhuis as mentioned by Tenacious Doug is a good call, however if starting early on there on a Sunday afternoon you will find that ‘Gulden Draak’ (one of their house brews) is not a ‘light refreshing session ale’, but a 12% monster…

The one on the square that takes shoes as a deposit sounds like the Dulle Griet:
http://www.dedullegriet.be/en/

Bit touristy (must be in Lonely Planet etc) but a good place to waste a few hours

This was the Thai restaurant I visited (from my earlier post…)

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g188666-d1150372-Reviews-Le_Baan_Thai-Ghent_East_Flanders_Province.html

I remember the bar with the shoe deposit thing and a vegetarian restaurant called virus!!… It’s all coming back to me!!!

Don’t forget to bring back the Mrs/partner a little gift, possibly chocolate.
OMG the chocolate shops over there are to die for – drool.

Chocolaterie de Graslei, run by one incredibly nice guy, on Grasbrug is the place for chocolates!

No I’m not related to the guy or in business with him, just a very satisfied and reasonably regular customer.

Ghent is fantastic.

Oldgit – I’d love a copy of those GPX to if you wouldn’t mond. Going for a week in June to ride the cobbles 😀

I live there (actually half way between Oudenaarde & gent) & being there during the Gentse Feesten might (or might not be a good thing)
The place is ultra busy and quite different to the normal experience

Don’t get me wrong, the feesten is also great but changes the atmosphere
(It really becomes more like a festival) 😉
Customer service goes down a big way, restaurants are rammed full.
Drinking will become Jupiler from a plastic cup

On the plus side you don’t have to try to find a parking space

The location of your hostel is hilarious during the feesten. You are literally touching one of the biggest stages (polé pole) so I hope you like African / Latin music 🙂
The stage spans across the river there parallel to the bridge

restaurants are rammed full

Can’t be to hard to find chips & mayo?!

It really becomes more like a festival

I’ve a feeling that’ll suit us.

I hope you like African / Latin music

Hell yeah!

Can I assume prices go up?