July 7 - Ghent, Belgium

The Guy went off to attend and present at his conference and we played!

We started the day by taking a boat tour of the canals of Ghent.

 Here we learned that Ghent was one of the largest cities in Europe in the Middle Ages and that it was/is an important textile area.  We also heard about why the people wear a noose, why they have a peace cannon, and all sorts of different things.

 The trip started out pretty good.

 But it went downhill for some members fast.

 Others were inconsolable the whole time(I should have had her take a nap first).

Notice the presence of four teeth.  

She started the trip with just her snaggle tooth. 

After the boat ride we headed to the Gravensteen Castle(the one we can see from our hotel room).

 We heard that the castle has "an excellent exhibit on torture instruments" and "the best torture chamber".

The kids liked these spears.

 They were acting out their best fear before going into the torture rooms.

 Looking out from the towers.

 What a lovely city.

 He was so excited that the telescopes worked without having to pay for them.  He spent a long time looking through them.

 Another view of the city.  The white building with the little tower on top is our hotel.  

That tower is our room.

 Playing on top of the castle.

 Up to this point we hadn't seen much of the torture stuff.

Then we walked into this room with a real guillotine.  That blade you see right there has been used.

Yuck!

 At this point in the tour it got gross.  The room full of torture instruments was pretty gruesome.  And then every room we would walk into would have a sign that said something like this:

"This room was once the throne room/stable/chapel/banquet hall/etc... until 17xx when it was turned into the room where they did X type of torture."  Each of the items we saw in the torture area had once been used at some place in the castle and they told us all about it again.

Sweetie pondering his kingdom.

 Woof-woof daintily overseeing her subjects.

 Having an imaginary battle through the walls.

 These toilets smell.

 Sitting on a different throne.

 After Sweetie stood up he said, "Did people really use that?"  I said, "probably".  Then he got really disgusted that he had sat there.  Haha!

The chapel.  Or the room where they used the torture device that was a collar with spikes on the inside that they put around the persons neck.  Then they attached the collar to the four corners of the room so that you couldn't move without hurting yourself.  Lovely way to spend time in a chapel...

 The "we're so sick of torture" faces.

 Get us out of this castle!!!

 After all of that torture we needed some love.  So we ate the Belgium kind.

We had lunch, went to the hotel so The Little One could nap, and then headed out again.

We stopped by this church, Saint Nicholas Church, and tried to go in but it was closed for the day.

 We continued down the road towards the next church(only a block away) and saw this lovely building with these dancing figures on top.  I should have pulled out a dancing pose.

 The next church we came to was Saint Bavo Cathedral.  It was lovely inside(no pictures allowed).  We enjoyed looking at the different building materials and trying to figure out which parts were built when.  At the very end we got a fun surprise with an unexpected diagram showing the timeline of when each part was built.  The timeline fit almost exactly what we had thought.

 We also enjoyed, well Sweetie and I enjoyed, going down into the crypt museum and seeing the really old bibles they had.  I loved pointing out to the kids the handwritten and illustrated versions.  We even got to see a copy from 1409 that was on a scroll, not a book.

A picture of the other side of the cathedral.

 We then met up with The Guy and went out for dinner.  We got soup, which was so delicious!

 On the way back to our hotel Sweetie wanted to try out carrying The Little One in the ergo.  I thought it was a good idea - saves my back.  He loved it...

She, not so much!