TRAVEL | GHENT | BELGIUM
Ghent, Belgium — The Meeting Place of Two Rivers
Our first visit to a medieval city
It is commonly believed that Ghent's original name, Ganda, was derived from a Celtic word meaning ‘confluence.’ Being situated at the intersection of both the Leie and Scheldt rivers, this makes a lot of sense.
It was our first visit to Belgium, and we chose Ghent because we met a man while traveling who promised to host us if we ever visited his country. If it wasn’t for him, we may never have traveled to Belgium at all, which would have been a shame.
In 1300, Ghent was possibly the richest and most prosperous city north of the Alps, with the exception of Paris. It had upwards of 65,000 citizens and was an important textile stronghold, exceeding the populations of Moscow and Cologne.
When we first arrived, our friend asked us what we wanted to do. As usual, we had not done one lick of research, as we prefer to be surprised by places instead of creating expectations and the possibility of being let down.
