Gent Off The Beaten Path

This bombarde is made of wrought iron and is as heavy as 12.000 kilos and as long as 5 meter ! Produced in the 15th century, the legend telsus it made one victim during it's first usage : the shooter himself !
Originally it was probably stolen in Oudenaarde around 1578 together with another weapen.

Located at the Groot kanonplein, between the Graslei and the Vrijdagsmarkt.

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It always pays to look up, wherever you are. Many architectural details and curiosities are easily missed if you only look at eye-level.

Gent is no exception. You'll see carvings, and little statues, and twiddly decorations all over the place.

Here are some I spotted on my rather brief visit:

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Tourist strolling around in Ghent in the neighborhood of the "Castle of Counts" will have, without doubt, seen the old facade of the previous "Fishmine" in Ghent.
The fishmine will be reconstructed and in the meantime Graffiti artist or free to show their talents.

Don’t forget to visit one of beguinages, oases of peace and quiet in the busy heart of the city.

More (general) information on the Flemish Beguinages can be found here.

In Gent you can visit 3 beguinages:

1. Small Beguinage: Lange Violettestraat 209, 9000 Ghent (Unesco WHS)

2. Former St.-Elisabeth Beguinage: Begijnhofdries, 9000 Ghent

3. Large Beguinage: E. Van Arenbergstraat, 9040 Ghent-Sint-Amandsberg (Unesco WHS)

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When exploring in Gent make sure you pause often to look up at the details of the various buildings. The carvings often show the past use of the building in trade or commerce. My first photo shows one of these images on an old building on the Korenlei. The second picture is of a lovely old red brick building nearby, dating back to 1669.

We spotted this beautifully painted cow in the Hoefslaag, a little turning off Langemunt (one of the main shopping streets in Gent). I don't know what she was doing there but she reminded me of the ones that were to be found around London a few years back, decorated by a number of well-known artists and later auctioned for charity, so maybe she's part of a similar project in Belgium. Perhaps someone reading this will know and be able to tell me.

Whatever the reason for her presence we enjoyed the splash of colour and humour she brought to our day.

Groot Huis is the public theater and is located at Sint-Baafsplein 17 in Ghent. This is exactly the kind of place you miss if you don't walk to different parts of the city. Of course, I was only down here to find a great pub I'd read about. Not only was the food and beer great, I saw a something I'd have missed otherwise.

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Gent is filled with little surprises, take your time strolling the streets and make sure to look up to see all the delightful architectural touches on some of the buildings, peacock windows, ships carved in the stone, jesters dancing in the sky, a lion waiting to spring on its prey.....