Three countries in one day

On Friday, we headed out of Paris early to make our way to Amsterdam by bus. Our route will take us to Ghent where we will stop for lunch and a tour. The bus is huge and very comfortable! After we leave Paris morning traffic we have smooth driving for a couple of hours before taking a break at a highway rest stop. Wow! This place is huge, clean, filled with food options and a really nice convenience store. Our rest stops seem rather shabby in comparison. As soon as we hit the Belgian border (noted only by a small sign) the language changes to Dutch which is the language of northern Belgium. Ghent is a medieval city directly on our way. The bus is too big to get to the center of town, so we stop at a water taxi stand for a quick open boat ride into town. The water taxi driver is quite amusing with his route info and clear disdain for the wealthy classes. There are very few cars in the old town and it makes it quite calm. I had a delicious fried shrimp and Belgian fries lunch (although the shrimp were in the form of croquettes) across from the medieval old castle spectacularly plopped in the center of town. After lunch, just as it started to rain we got a walking tour of the town from another wonderful guide. He explained about the castle, the main bridge, the various old guild house buildings and the three towers-the Belfry, St Bavo's cathedral and St Nicolas church. The cathedral is where the van Eyck brothers' Adoration of the Mystic Lamb altarpiece is located. Our guide first took us to a smaller reproduction to explain the various bits and pieces before we went to look at the real thing. A good half of it is in restoration but the main part that we saw was fully restored. The rendering of the various fabrics is stunning. After our tour, we all headed to a nearby chocolate shop to get hot chocolate (we were all pretty cold and wet at this point) and make our way back to the water taxi stand and then bus. From here it's a straight shot to Amsterdam! We arrive around 8p. Our hotel is on a narrow little street and is utterly charming. My room is small but clean and bright. I grabbed a take away calzone from an Italian shop around the corner and enjoyed a quiet evening.