g(h)ent (unabashed tourism)

Never having been to G(h)ent before, it seemed a great idea to spend a couple of nights here before the Trollope conference in Leuven - and, in between the rain (and one heavy hail) showers, it proved itself to be extremely pretty - like a more workaday version of Bruges, but extremely full of C16th and C17th Baltic prosperity - and indeed, C19th prosperity too: because it became a center of the modern textile trade (I had dinner in a converted C19th warehouse), it even became known as the Manchester of the North.  Clearly, the resemblance between these canals and the Manchester Ship Canal is small ...

There are still plenty of flower baskets hanging over the canals;

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many cyclists;

many people walking;

with everyone scuttling when the heavens open,

and then keeping their umbrellas open for a bit, just in case.