I guessing there's not a one-day "hop on, hop off" pass available.
So this would mean buying three separate tickets to see the Ruben's museum and the highlights of Gent. That's a bit of hassle right there.
How's the walk from the Antwerp station to the Ruben's museum?
What could I see in a two-hour walking loop from the Gent station?
How many stations does Brugge have?
"How's the walk from the Antwerp station to the Ruben's museum?" About 10-15 minutes along a pedestrian shopping street that runs from the train station to cathedral. And if you come to Antwerp to see Rubens' painting, check out the soaring late Gothic cathedral. One of the most under-rated in Europe, in my opinion.
"What could I see in a two-hour walking loop from the Gent station?" Use the tram system. Most of the sites lie a long distance from the train station with fairly uninteresting areas in between. In the historic city center, you can see a castle (De Gravensteen), the Grote Markt, stadhuis, the canals, and several impressive churches. Closer to the train station, a large city park contains a modern art museum with the best acroymn in Europe-SMAK- and a more traditional art museum.
"How many stations does Brugge have?" For the old section of town that most tourists come to visit, only one.
Thank you Tom!
We will be carrying our luggage.
If we chose only one, I'm guessing you'd suggest Antwerp over Gent?
Also, the reason I asked about Bruges old-town station,... I want to make sure it's not a spur, off from a more central, hub station where the Eurostar and TGV's go through.
It's too bad there isn't a website like the airlines "Seat-checker" site, that runs down the amenities in each train station:
Locker/Bag-Check facilities, distances from ticket booth to platform, where to sit with a coffee, etc.
Nothing is more depressing than being way too early and trying to kill time in the seedy corner of a hard and cold train station.
That's a tough call. Both are worth seeing, but if time is tight, and you stop next in Brugge, I might go with Antwerp over Ghent. Mainly because the center of Ghent is similar to Brugge.
Although I like the Rubenshuis in Antwerp just fine, it's important to understand that they have virtually no artworks by hometown boy Peter Paul Rubens. The Royal Museum in Antwerp (KMKSA) has more Rubens paintings than Brussels has, but KMKSA is closed for renovation until 2017. Some of their collections have been parcelled out to places like the Antwerp Cathedral, which is a great visit anyway. There are about 7 Rubens paintings at the brand new MAS museum in Antwerp, but they have only 1% or 2% of the KMKSA normal showings anyway. The UNESCO heritage site Plantin-Moretus museum in Antwerp has vast numbers of Rubens drawings and etchings and printing layouts, but many museumgoers aren't so interested in black and white graphic works. This is one of the most important museums in Belgium, but it's off the beaten track to most tourists. Don't overlook the Meyer Van Den Bergh museum in Antwerp, which is quite small, but very high quality. They have a very special Brughel room (including "Dulle Griet", a lesser-known but thrilling painting), and great Renaissance works from Germany and France. Bruges and Ghent can be "done" in a day. Antwerp and Brussels cannot. I would say that Antwerp is to Brussels as Boston is to New York City, but Antwerp is even nicer than Boston, and even more walkable. But Ghent is prettier than Antwerp, and looks more like Brugge. Ghent has a great art museum, and one of the most important free-standing single works in Europe, the Ghent Altarpiece, in the church - with more hours and days of the week than the art museum. It's very hard to compare these cities.
How did this zombie thread get resurrected?
That's good info to add. I like it, even though it's close to 2 years since we went to Brugge. We ended up missing all of that back then. My cousins from Amsterdam decided to get a room in Ghent for that night, so they gave us a ride to check out our accommodations in Brugge! We stayed here: http://www.b-bverhulst.com/ ...and have a great story to tell when we're not in mixed company. This alternative transport let us stay out MUCH later than we might have that last night in Amsterdam. All in all, spending a hungover afternoon in the back of a Volvo sedan turned out to be a more efficient use of travel time.
"...and have a great story to tell when we're not in mixed company." Nobody here but little ol' us... "All in all, spending a hungover afternoon in the back of a Volvo sedan turned out to be a more efficient use of travel time." Flexible is good...and 'flexible' may be an important part of the story in your particular case ;-) I always say Choose Bruges...
