Window shopping in Ghent…

After dropping off Mom at the airport in Brussels, we decided to take a day trip to Ghent, Belgium which is known for its medieval architecture dating back to the 13th century.  Unfortunately the weather was rainy and dreary, which made for a difficult day of sightseeing and we weren’t able to take a canal cruise as I’d hoped.  We managed nonetheless to find lots of cool churches and buildings, and entertained ourselves by running around statues as fast as we could without falling off. Ah, Europe. We found some funky boutique shops mixed in among the more expensive and more common stores along the main shopping streets, and stopped at an authentic cafe for a delicious snack at their outdoor (and only slightly rainy) tables. Sam carried his take-away chocolate éclair in a little white box for about an hour until he finally broke down and stopped on the side of the street to eat it while Sara and I ducked into a shop (he is holding it in the picture below). I was sure to buy a couple of dark chocolates from the famous Daskalides chocolatier: I tried the coeur pamplemousse and the favorite and shared them both with Jon, who didn’t like the pamplemousse at all (I knew he wouldn’t).  Sam had a scoop of ice cream, and Sara chose a milk chocolate flower.  All of that for under €4 was a great deal! So after wandering around a bit and taking some pictures of the buildings, we decided to head back to the car since the weather was still overcast and gray. Unfortunately we weren’t exactly sure where we had parked, so we ended up making a few wrong turns and somehow got to a rather unusual part of town. They call it the Zuidkwartier which is basically the red light district. So there we are, walking around and lost, and we turn down this street that looks… well… odd. There are buildings with no signs, many with large bay windows, mostly with their curtains drawn. There is nobody walking on the street, and then Sara says Nice street. I look up and there is a woman in the bay window, dressed in skimpy lingerie, looking bored. Oh, shit, these are prostitutes, and Sara saw them! We walked a bit faster but I am sure that Sara managed to see into a few of these windows before we realized where we were and got out of there. I can see it now, Sara telling her friends about our trip to Ghent. Yeah, it was cool, we went shopping and then we walked around looking at prostitutes on display in windows. Yikes! I guess we should have known that something was up when we saw the statue in this picture (be sure to click to enlarge):