Worldtrip a 45 year old's adventures around the world-which include everything from sitting in random McDonalds using his notebook, hanging with 22 year olds, and other immature stuff.

I went on a walking tour of Ghent yesterday afternoon. I generally prefer to go on walking tours the first day I see a new town, but I didn't arrive until late the previous day, so that wasn't an option. So although I left Ghent last night, I went on a walking tour-which was quite interesting.

I learned four different things:

1. There is a sculpture on a building of the Mammelokker of Ghent. He was imprisoned in Ghent for 10 years, and not provided with any food and water.  Yet he didn't shrivel away and die-he survived. His only visitor was his daughter.  Guards ensured she didn't arrive at the prison with any food or water. So how did she survive?  It's in the print above- (that's right, she breastfed her own father)

2. Ghent was one of the most popular cities years ago in Europe, due to it's location on the river and control of the textile trade-but the people refused to pay a certain tax, the king took all of their rights and publically humiliated Ghent's rulers, and thus Ghent is the small city it is today.

3. There are strict morartoriums on the facade of buildings in Ghent, but not the inside.  The tour guide took us to the outside of a Marriott Hotel, which looked quite old and historical, and then took us inside-which looked quite new and modern, complete with a sparkling atrium. 

4. I paid way too much for beer the day before. The tour guide said you should never pay more then 2.5 Euros for a beer anywhere is town-I paid 4.7 the day before.

Otherwise, after the tour-I had a quick beer and checked my email at the hostel where the tour originated. It was time to go to the airport, for my flight to Basel, Switzerland.  I enjoyed Ghent and wish I could have spent another night there (but frankly-no more then one more night).  The trip to the airport was uneventful, and the flight was uneventful, except for losing my boarding pass after getting something to eat waiting for the flight-in which point I had to exit the gate-area of the terminal, go back up to departures and get a new boarding pass-and re-enter through security.