Gent by Cycle

This morning I checked out of the Holiday Inn in Leiden, Holland, and boarded a train for Gent in Belgium. Bricsys, which is headquartered in Gent, is hosting me for a few days. I am visiting Bricsys on Monday and intend to use the weekend to do some sightseeing around Gent.

Gent is a beautiful old town. I heard that the best way to see it is to rent a cycle, arm yourself with a street map and pedal around the streets. And so I did exactly that. After checking in into the hotel I walked up to the nearest cycle renting outlet and rented a cycle. I picked up a cycle tour map from the tourism office and went on a tour through the town. It was fun, much better than taking the bus. This way I could stop as and when I pleased for as long as I wanted, as opposed to being herded around by a tour guide. However, I didn’t get to know the history behind the places I visited. The cycle tour map I got from the tourism office was in Dutch only and no other language. I found that odd because common sense tells me that someone wanting to take a cycle tour around Gent will most probably be an outsider and will not understand Dutch.

I learned something the hard way today. While riding a cycle on asphalt may be fun, riding on cobbled streets gives you a very sore butt.