Day 23 - Gent, Bruges and Sluis

We started the day with weak sunshine, a blue sky and the temperature around 5C. Following the 'Historic Walk' map of Gent, we walked down the road to St Bavo's Cathedral which dates back to the 10th Century. An enormous Cathedral which was built over three centuries. Its greatest treasure is the The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb by Hubrecht and Jan van Eyck which we saw. A man was playing the harp in one of the chapels which surprised and made Tom jump when he found him.
Continued walking to its belfry and impressive town hall but we decided not to climb the belfry. The skyline of the historic city is very pretty with gabled buildings that date back to the 12th Century. Walked along its canal and crossed over at the northern end. As we walked back we went past the Children's Hospital (now a museum) which was established in 13th Century and then walked to the Castle of the Counts. An impressive Castle where King Charles V of Spain was born in 1500 but decided not to tour it, so crossed back over at the southern bridge, St Nicholas' bridge. This is the more famous of the bridges and is pretty. By this stage we were really cold so bought some Belgian chocolates and went to Starbucks in the Square and ate them whilst enjoying a hot coffee. Feeling warmer, we had finished the tour of the town of Gent and headed off to Bruges.
Bruges is about 40 minutes in the car along the auto-route from Gent. By this time there was a slight drizzle of rain. We found the central carpark easily and headed towards its famous Belfry which we could see in the distance. We found the Market square and then the Burg, which is a smaller square but is surrounded by very pretty architecture and this is where the Belfry is. We bought a ticket and climbed the 366 steps to the top to have a great view of Bruges although the wind was blowing and it was really cold. The Belfry is famous for its 47 carillon bells that are rung by a mechanism installed in 1748. We were there for the 1.30pm chimes which was loud. We then had hot chips in the square to warm up. The temperature was now 8C and still really cold. We walked along its pretty canal and more picturesque architecture back to the car.
We still had some daylight so set off towards Sluis which is just inside Holland and about 40 minutes from Bruges. The countryside in both Belgium and Holland is so flat and the auto-routes are very efficient although semi-trailers everywhere. We got to Sluis about 3.30pm and the sun was shining making us feeler warmer. Sluis is a very pretty town which had once been a very powerful fortress city. It sits where the Zwin estuary divides into two, flowing to Bruges and Gent. In the 13th Century it controlled all trade to both of these towns but lost its influence when the Zwin started to silt up in the 15th Century.
Sluis is also famous for the canal that Napoleon built between it and Bruges. Napoleon used Spanish prisoners of war from 1812 to 1814 to excavate the canal so he could transport supplies. The canal was originally planned to go between Bruges and Westerchelde but when Napoleon was defeated, work stopped at Sluis. It is a beautiful looking canal, lined with tall poplar trees. We walked along the canal and then walked to its central square and another Belfry. Then we walked to its last remaining windmill which we climbed inside and up to its platform where we could look over Sluis. We really felt we were in Holland seeing a windmill.
By this time it was getting late and we headed back to Gent for a late dinner and bed. Dag (goodbye in Flemish) from Belgium.