and a much higher frequency of locking

Taking the bulk of the stuff to the station the night before does make it markedly easier to leave a holiday-room, saving lots of packing/repacking and reducing worry that things might have been left. Though Nicky seems to enjoy unpacking into the various drawers and wardrobes available whilst on holiday I prefer to work out of my rucksack, reducing the possibility of leaving something in a cupboard or drawer or under the bed though I'm reasonably certain the only thing I left behind were a couple of Blipcards on the shelf containing various cards and flyers for nearby restaurants. Whilst I would still have to carry two big rucksacks and a camera bag from the station to the hotel in Ghent as I had done between the station and hotel in Bruges upon arrival the walk back to the station with only one lightly-packed large rucksack and one large camera bag was much easier, especially after a last large breakfast.

The B&B (the B&B Marjan deGraeve, Kazernevest 32, 8000 Brugge) is highly recommended. A percolating coffee machine is provided alongside the more standard kettle. There is fast and free wi-fi. That alone should recommend it sufficiently to anyone but there's also a fridge in the room for chilling the orange juice, cheese and jamstuffs provided for breakfast (a box containing breads/buns/eggs/yoghurts is left outside your door at a time of your choosing each morning) as well as any vla one should care to buy to supplement it, there's a nice view of the ring-canal through some conker trees outside the window, a cast of the head of a statue of either Neptune or Poseidon hangs above the toilet, one free bottle per person of the owners' dark and pale home-brew beers are included (dark but fizzy beer is a bit odd but both were nice as is the use of a bottle of their apple-flavoured dessert wine in the fridge (which is probably nice if you like that sort of thing), the room was comfortable and stuffed with loads of various bits of stuff like plaster Jesus heads, old posters and portions of doll-anatomy and the host provides useful local information, all situated in a nice bit of town away from the tourist-infested bits but right next to the cycle-walkway leading to the station and within easy reach of anywhere seeing as the central bit of town can be walked round in a couple of hours. Bicycles are also available for rental and there's a switch next to the toilet to activate a concealed radio if you need any covering noises.

I had hoped that after leaving the above we'd be able to pop to the station via town for a last poke at the nice home-wares shop and possibly another bowl of soup and coffee at Het Dagelijks Brood but we just went straight to the station along the canal, past the art-thing of a sectioned wooden model of a person, the lifty-uppy bridge, the Ghentpoort gatehouse thing, the mysterious other tower-thing with its four ancillary towerlets, a couple of views and lots of conker trees. The bag was still safe in the locker and there was plenty of space on the train. On the way to the platform I noticed that beer is available from vending machines in the station concourse, an odd move and one I hope is never duplicated in the UK. It seemed to be the local skank-beer as it's the same brand whose cans have been the only really noticeable litter on window-stills and next to benches in parks.

Ghent immediately looks significantly different despite a few people saying that it was pretty much the same as Bruges. For a start, the station is a wee bit older and well on the way to looking as tatty as Ostend though off the platform the building was much grander than the main (modern) equivalent in Bruges. There was no complex of cycle racks containing several thousand cycles but just a few racks and a small parklette containing a dried-up central water feature and a few trampy-looking people on some of the benches, something mysteriously absent from Bruges. By carrying 80% of the weight I got to say how we got to the hotel and chose walking over the tram. One might have passed us on the way but otherwise we were probably quicker on foot and it only takes half an hour, even laden. We'd spotted and overtaken some other people dragging bags who had the look of looking for their hotel, though even after getting to ours, dumping stuff, changing clothes and unpacking before wandering into the town centre we saw them again pottering about, still trailing their suitcases, looking exactly like people who were either thoroughly lost or who had perhaps gone to the wrong branch of a hotel with two branches in the town centre even though some guide books specifically warned against doing exactly this.

After not getting a nice bowl of soup earlier on in Bruges we had a nice bowl of soup each (in my case a fucking huge bowl containing well over a pint) served with two wee rolls and a nice fresh apple from Souplounge (Zuivelbrugstraat 2). Didn't try their coffee but on the list for tomorrow is another recommended place nearby which does coffee and cakes. Popped into a couple of churchy-things (both quite dull, one suffering from excessive roof-weight and bad wording on their information things to the extent that they actually admit that the miracles attributed to saints are all made up) and the tourist office to find out just how many things on the three-day museum-card are shut on Mondays and pottered about a bit more. Though Ghent has a few canals, a Belfort, a couple of cathedrals fighting over who has the highest tower, streets called Langestraat, Jeruzalemstraat and Coupure it's distinctly different and initially much more real-seeming than Bruges, which is pretty enough and quite pleasant (at least, out of the main tourist season) but does seem quite twee and chocolatey-boxy. Ghent feels like it has a city with some tourist stuff in whereas the entire central southern lump of Bruges seems to be entirely given over to touristystuff. I popped out a bit later to try and find some internet to avoid having to pay for it in the hotel and liked it even more, especially after finding three free networks, one of which is very close to the hotel and serves proper coffee and another which is almost definitely accessible from the coffee/cake shop we walked past earlier on when soup was deemed more appropriate for our needs.