Belgium - Ghent

Medieval Beauty
I let the Costa Ricans make the plans - told them I'd go along with anything.  Barely 20 hours later we were on a bus out of Brussels, packed in with tourists from Cambodia, India, Spain and Germany.  First stop was Ghent.  I could hardly believe my eyes, just an hour away was this gorgeous Flemish town, bringing the ugliness of the capital into sharper relief.

Belgium - Brussels

The Ugly Stepchild

Aside from Grand Place in the center of the city there is nothing, and I mean nothing, to like about Brussels.  I saw all I needed to on the first of my fourteen days there and spent the remaining thirteen transporting myself elsewhere on a river of their strongest beer.