Ghent has been one pleasant surprise after another. Yesterday, after taking in an impressive number of sites, I grabbed a quick nap at the hotel (something I never do back in my "normal" life), and then headed off to find a place to eat. This city is absolutely lovely at dusk --people wander the streets and sit outside the cafes, the canals bestowing an air of tranquility and laid-back coolness you just don't seem to find many places. This is not a city that tries to seduce you. It just shows you what is has to offer and lets you decide if you want to take the relationship further.

Instead of finding a place to eat, I ended up wandering into a canalside pub that I remembered was highly recommended by Lonely Planet. I struck up a random conversation with an ex-pat Canadian guy who wqs soon joined by some colleagues from work: a Belgian and an American. We chatted away for hours, sampling the variety of incredible brews --including one called Delirium Tremens, which has a pink elephant on the bottle (a warning?). Before I knew it, I was stumbling into a frites shop for that long-deferred dinner before stumbling the rest of the way back to the convent. I slept a nice long boozy sleep.

Today, I have hit a few more can-t miss sites, including a twelfth century castle in the heart of the city knozn as Gravensteen... and the day ain't over yet!

Tomorrow, I head to Paris to meet up with my main squeeze. Hope it lives up to the hype....

Today, I arrived in Ghent, a beautiful historic city in Western Belgium. It is very close to Bruges, which I had originally intended to visit, but I'm not so sure I will anymore.... I like it too much here!

I am staying in a fantastic guest house, Monasterium Poortackere, that used to be a convent and I am only a hop skip and jump away from the centre of this town, which in the middle ages, was the biggest city north of the alps after Paris... Just my kind of place... crammed full of history!

I arrived here today from Brussels, after spending the day wandering the Capital of Europe and visiting various sites like the Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinee-- which prompted fond recollections of reading Tintin, Alix, and Asterix as a kid. After 2 days in Brussels (not including my side-trip to Waterloo, I was more than happy to leave. Don't get me wrong, I like the place fine, but somehow, it felt a bit too close to Ottawa for me, with all the Eurocrats running around;

One thing I will always remember with great pleasure is the beer --my God, the BEER! After tasting beer in this country, I dread returning home and drinking the stuff we have in Canada, which no longer qualifies as beer to me. I have sampled Lambics that tasted as though the angels themselves had crafted them, Trappist brews with a kick strong enough to knock you on your ass, golden brews; chocolaty rich ale delicacies... and my God, I want MORE!

I have a feeling I will be spending alot of the summer working off the beer-belly that will be the inevitable result of my new hobby....

WATERLOO (not the ABBA song/not the town in Ontario)

was a truly mindblowing experience. I am sure that most people go there, see a bunch of rolling fields and placid Belgian countryside, a couple of monuments, and a big pyramid with a lion on top, shrug, and move on....

But I saw The Guards poking muskets out of loopholes in the Hougoumont chateau, firing blindly as canister rattled against the stone walls and the Prince Jerome's troops screamed forward with eagles held aloft through the orchard. I saw Sir Thomas Picton crash to the ground with a bullet in his brain as his highlanders tore into a French column. I saw the union brigade, swords held high, stream over the ridge south of Mont Saint Jean and savage the French infantry columns just below the crest. I saw red-haired marshall Ney, the bravest of the brave, leading the flower of the French Cavalry in a mad charge around a dutch-belgian batallion formed into square. I watched men groan and die under the hail of musketry and the flail of grapeshot as the King's German Legion abandoned La Haye Saint to the victorious French and I heard the Imperial guard chanting "VIVE L'EMPEREUR!" as the climax of the battle grew close. Suddenly, Wellington shouts "Now's your time!" and redcoats sprout like dragon's teeth on a ridge turned into a nightmare of carnage and pour volley fire into the Emperor's pampered favourites! LA GARDE RECULE! Then a wave of the hook-nosed Duke's cocked hat and the line flows forward! The Prussians are sweeping in from the West! Blucher has arrived. The guard dies, the guard does not surrender... and so it does, as Buonaparte is borne away in defeat. Many on the field do not stir to follow the battle south. Many will never stir again. I hear mournful pipes play and watch the smoke waft across a field were tens of thousands lay dead or dying....
well, I could have sworn for a minute there anyway....

bloody Belgiqµn Keyboards!!!

If ever you have the misfortune of having to type something on a computer in belgium.... know that i feel your pain. I have encountered foreign keyboards before, but nothing like this é"&àççà!!!!!

Anyway, just got to brussels... lovely city but terrible weather right now. No matter, a good beer and soome moule frites will raise my spirits! I have a room in the coolest part of town and a few euros to my name... life is good!