With a friend in Ghent

I used one of my last vacation days to meet up with a friend in Ghent. It's very rare to take a day off when my children are in school.  It felt quite uncomfortable.  

But once I was on the train with my book and a bit of music it was quite chill.  We returned to the city where we lived and studied but after approx 16 (when I moved to Leuven from Ghent) - 27 years (when I studied there) the city doesn't feel familiar anymore at all.  My friend had the same feeling.  

First of all...Gent St Pieters train station. Whaa what a construction site that is.  When going down, I wasn't sure in which tunnel lane I was at first.  

We walked in the direction of the university,   had a good coffee break to catch up and then zigzagged like tourists over the city center where the Christmas market was just opening up. 

The Aula of our university transformed in an art performance.  When we studied there,  there was meat on the pillars by Jan Fabre during the "Over the Edges" 

After a good relax lunch together in the city center we slowly returned towards the train station.   But when crossing the shoppingstreet of the Veldstraat, I noticed an inviting sign at the civil house that is in the middle.  We checked it out and found ourselves in the most amazing city palace that we could visit for free.  I must have walked by a hundred times already and I had no clue what was behind this facade.

With great amazement and joy we visited the ballroom, dining rooms, private rooms, the basement kitchens and storage rooms etc.  

The salons where Louis XVIII , the French king has lived a few months while he had fled for Napoleon.  How contrasting to be here , complete with old music while we could see the shoppers outside go in and out mediocre shopping chains. 

There was a 2nd city palace on the opposite side of the Veldstraat to visit but we ran out of time and had to rush out of time to return to the train station.   But it was a truly great discovery and I'll be back one day to visit them both again. Apparently most Friday's and Saturday's they are open to the public from 14-18h.