Tuesday 30 November 2004

After breakfast we check out of our hotel and take a taxi to the railway station. We take the train to Ghent where we arrive 22 minutes later. We store our luggage in one of the lockers at the station and try to take a bus to the  Museum voor Schone Kunsten (Museum of Fine Art). The bus drivers of the 'De Lijn' bus company appear not be too familiar with the city because it takes some effort to get them to understand where we want to go. Finally we find the right bus and we alight right in front of the museum, a closed museum as it turns out. The museum, that is supposed to have an interesting collection turns out to be closed for renovations until 2006. Later we read that parts of the collection are lent out to other museums like the Museumpaviljoen, the Design museum and the museum in Deinze. Judging by the museum's outside appearance a renovation was well in order. We move on to "plan B" which is a visit to S.M.A.K. right across the road. S.M.A.K. stands for Stedelijk Museum voor Aktuele Kunst (City Museum for Contemporary Art). It is a relatively new museum, reputedly with an interesting collection. Once inside we see only part of that. A large section of the museum is devoted to the work of a Cameroon artist, we have never heard of. One of the museum's specialties is 'Minimal art', which is what it says it is: minimal. The works of art get a lot of space and you can get a good impression of the works in the virtually empty rooms. But it also means that it did not take more than 45 minutes to see it all!

We walk along the Leie towards the centre past Vooruit, a  former trade union club, now serving as an alternative stage, café and dance club. In the city centre we have lunch in the Brooderie (Breydelstraat). A wholefood sandwich shop, serving very nice quiches and other healthy stuff. Very busy. We make another round through the old town and decide to climb the Belfry. It is, in contrast to yesterday, a clear day. Unfortunately the city of Ghent does not reckon with fine winter days as the tower is closed until mid March. As we have seen most what we set out to see, we decide to take the tram from the Korenmarkt to the railway station. At 2.31pm we take the train to Antwerp. At Antwerpen Berchem change trains for the international train to the Netherlands. We arrive in Rotterdam at 4.52pm.