After our initial drop off in the centre of Ghent and our visit to St Bavo’s Cathedral we wandered through Graffiti Street, crossed over one of the bridges spanning the canals in the city, and found ourselves face-to-face with the structure. With Ghent’s architecture being the way it is the presence of a castle in the network of streets didn’t look too out of place.

We paid the entrance fee and wandered inside. In terms of rooms and things of interest in the castle there were plenty to explore and many explanations and examples of the types of torture equipment typically used in Ghent. Lovely.

The route through the interior of Gravensteen inevitably leads to its rooftop which affords great views over the surrounding city of Ghent and plenty of wide, sweeping photographs. The climb up was fairly steep but not the worst or longest one we’ve done when we’ve visited castles back home.

After descending there is another walk around the inside the walls that can be taken. This allows for some views from the archery points in the walls outwards as well as unobstructed views and photo opportunities of the main keep of Gravensteen too.

It was grey at first but the sun did pop out for a bit as the day wore on. Ghent was architecturally stunning with much of it being medieval although the Dutch influence on the region was clear to see as well. St Bavo’s Cathedral was gorgeous inside; one of the most attractive cathedrals I’ve ever been in. Sadly, no photos were allowed and we abide by rules even if other visitors to the place ignored them completely. Gits.

After the cathedral we passed through Graffiti Street and made our way to Gravensteen Castle. After our climb to the top of that structure to look out over the rooftops of Ghent we felt in need of a beer so hit the one you can see pictured below. Pictures of the beer we had as well as the inside of the place can be found here.

As we met up with our guide and headed out of Ghent to find the coach that would take us back to Azura docked in Zeebrugge we passed a wedding photoshoot taking place making use of a drone. I couldn’t help but take a few shots of the happy couple too.

In addition to traditional wall-daubed graffiti and street art there was also a sculpture that could be used as an artistic canvas.

In truth the graffiti was not of a fantastically high quality but we appreciated that a place like Ghent had it.

Like many industrial ports that cruise ships use Zeebrugge was… not particularly exciting to look at, although some naval vessels did provide a slight distraction from the typical cranes and containers you come to expect.