The Rails to Ghent

We left Amsterdam this morning for Ghent via Antwerp. We were not able to get the high speed train that we first wanted because the all the seats available for reservation with our tickets were booked already.  We were worried that this was going to be a busy train given our results with the other one. We arrived at the station with plenty of time and the platform began to fill as the departure time approached. We decided to send in the seat snipers to get the job done. Tara and Riley spotted the first class car pass by and ran down the platform to score our seat.  Success!  That was easy given the fact we had the whole 1st class car to ourselves. 

The realization one of our the first big 'oops' moves of the trip came on this train. When the conductor came and asked for our tickets I handed them over like I have two dozen times before. This act can be a little embarrassing as I carry them in my money belt and they have been soggy with sweat and dried a few times into a bit of a wrinkled mess. With them tucked into my belt we can still get on trains to travel even if everything else gets lost, stolen, etc.

When the train conductor comes to check our tickets sometimes it's a quick stamp and they move on, other times it is a little longer inspection, but we always get our stamp, except this time. She flipped through our tickets a few times and asked where the rest was. Huh?  There was a sizeable language gap that might have actually helped in the end. It is easier to be clueless when you cannot understand each other. She asked where we were getting off this train and said she would be back. In the meantime we were to look for this section of the ticket. 

We looked, and looked, it was not to be found. We took time to pray that this would work out, now we were wondering what would happen next. We had paid for the tickets there was no question about that, we just did not have this section that she was talking about. I kept looking at the passing stations and praying that we would pass the second to last stop, at that point we would make it at least to our connection city and if we had to work things out we could do it there and catch the next ride out to Ghent. 

She came back after that second to last stop and was not pleased with our lack of progress. We had a  few minutes of conversation, as best we could with the language gap. We were trying to be as submissive and helpless as we could because I really had no idea what we were missing. Finally, as we approached the station she was able to manage "This time you go, next time I fine."  She then stamped our ticket but I noticed that it was not in the day that we were traveling. I was praying that as well would not come to haunt us. 

We arrived at the Antwerp station, it was pretty cool inside, and went to a service desk to figure out how bad off we were. The female attendant explained that we are to have an itinerary detailed to accompany the tickets. I recall seeing it, vaguely. I think it was lost along the way as it got soggy and was adding additional, supposed unnecessary, bulk to my money belt.  We should have read the instructions a little more carefully as this was supposed to keep a record of all our stops along the way and produced on demand.  The demand was here and we could not produce it. 

She did not have the particular addendum that we needed, they only sold our ticket type in Brussels. She looked around and then told us just to play dumb and pretend that we never asked about it. Perfect, we had 'dumb' down like nobodies business. 

We boarded the next train to Ghent and were waiting to see how the next conductor would react. Was this a Belgian strictness that we had not encountered in the other countries?  Will we be repeating this? This guy was a stamper, not a looker. In a few days we will be in Brussels and will try to sort it out. 

We arrived in Ghent for our first hotel stay of the trip, most of the rest were individual owners, 1 hostel and 1 B&B. Patti with her deals secured us 4 free nights in the Marriott near the Koren Market right in one of the hearts of this town. Back in the day Ghent was prosperous and large enough to have several city centers, and this one seems to have the most charm with the canal as a setting. Also on Patti's free list were the international plane tickets which were $48 in total, leave it to Patti. Here is the view from our front door. 

The room had a TV much larger then the one we have at home and the kids needed to fire it up, just to see. With mom not objecting away they went. Patti soon filed that objection when what should appear before our eyes but the Giro d'Italia, saweet!  I battled the little ones and kept it in until the stage was over. Then it was out to see a bit of the town.

We grabbed a quick dinner at Subway, we are budget traveling remember, and the kids thought it sounded good. Plus we are without a kitchen and needed to eat much of our meals out. We ate outside on the edge of the Groenten Market plaza. 

Images in 2015 Ghent.