My first weekend in Europe.

D and i travelled to Belgium the day after i arrived a week ago. We spent our weekend in Gent and Antwerp in Belgium ( 2 days 1 night ). These 2 towns are pretty small so 2 days is enough to go around . That week was cold and windy. Temperature was about 10-15 degrees with strong wind. I wore skirt and stockings but weather was so windy that i have to change to pants.

Gent/Ghent is a beautiful town. It was about 2 hours train ride from Rotterdam with a transfer at Roosendaal (South of Netherlands) . Really beautiful and fairytale like architectures. Not a common travel destinations among Asians because not alot of people heard about this place in Belgium. Most people just know about Brussels/Bruxelles which is capital city.

We booked a B&B ( bed and breakfast ) room on a boat. There are alot of boat B&B inns and we decided to go for it instead of hotels. Never stay on a boat before. It is EUR 65 per night with breakfast included. We booked one that was eco-friendly because the rest of the boat B&B inns we shortlisted were full.

Stretch of boat B&B inns along the canals.

The owner was really helpful and friendly. He is fluent in English and in the B&B , you can take maps on different cities in Belgium and Gent for free. It is only 5 mins walk from the city centre.

The common room where we had our breakfast and you get to meet travelers from other countries. 

Our room. With a queen bed , sofa and dressing area.  \ 

Just 5 minutes walk away is the city centre with beautiful architectures. You can to see traditional Belgium houses with the zig zag squarish roofs , chateaus , fortresses and churches. 

The architectures are fairy-tale like. Like a castle.

You can sit by the canal , having picnics and enjoy the beautiful scenery and fresh air. 

Having your dinner at sunset. It gets colder as the sunsets so prepare your jacket. 

We went for a boat tour. It is not expensive. EUR 6.50 per pax for a 45 minutes boat tour around the canals with a guide. 

Food in Belgium are cheaper than Netherlands.

Belgium is famous for their chocolates  , Cuberdons and waffles so you got to try them !

Belgium and Netherlands are well known for their juicy red strawberries too !

Strawberries were sooo yummy and huge. I love it.

 I went to this shop 3 times to satisfy my strawberries , waffles and Belgian chocolate ice cream cravings.

EUR 5 for generous amount of juicy strawberries with whipped cream. You can ask for chocolate drips if you don’t like whipped cream.

Belgian homemade waffles with strawberries and home made Belgian chocolate drips.

Yes i had it 2 times ! 

Belgian chocolate are soo nice esp the home made chocolates and home made ice creams. I go for home made ones only because they taste really good and authentic.

Cuberdons were everywhere. I was curious how it tasted like so we bought a pack for EUR 2. Raspberry flavored candy which is made of gum arabic. Soft in the inside like jelly and hard on the outside. I don’t really like it because it was too sweet !

That sums up our first day in Gent , Belgium. 13th Sept as Gent festival and there are performances by the canals . We sat down on the steps along the canals , enjoying our repeated servings of Belgian home made chocolates , ice creams , waffles and strawberries and watched the concert. We head home at about 10pm because the weather was turning colder and very windy.

The next day , we checked out at about 10am and did our last tour in the city centre before taking a train to Antwerp which is along the border between Netherlands and Belgium. It is only about 30 minutes train ride back to Rotterdam. So we decided to stop by at Antwerp before heading back to Rotterdam.

Blogging next on Antwerp soon 🙂