Ghent

Ghent occupies an interesting position in the Belgian travel hierarchy. It has the medieval architecture of Bruges and some of the cosmopolitan energy of Brussels, but without the crowds of the first or the institutional weight of the second. It is a city of around 260,000 people, a quarter of them students, and that ratio shapes everything — the café culture, the politics, the hours the city keeps, and the easy sense that this is a place people actually live in rather than one maintained for outside consumption.

The three towers — Sint-Niklaaskerk, the Belfry, and Sint-Baafskathedraal — rise above the old city in a line that has been the defining skyline of Ghent for seven centuries. The Belfry holds the city's historic charters and offers the best elevated view in the city. The cathedral at the end of the row is where the Van Eyck altarpiece lives, in a purpose-built viewing room in the crypt. The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb was completed in 1432, survived iconoclasm, wars, and a Nazi theft, had individual panels scattered across Europe for decades, and has only recently been reunited in its entirety after a lengthy restoration. Standing in front of it, the scale and precision of the thing — the landscape receding into the background, the individual faces of the figures in the crowd, the quality of light that falls across the whole composition — is not something a reproduction prepares you for.

The Graslei and Korenlei, facing quays along the Leie river, form the most photographed stretch of the city: a row of medieval guild houses reflected in the water, best seen in the evening when the stone takes on a warmer color and the tourist boats have docked for the night. The Patershol district, tucked behind the Gravensteen castle, is a warren of narrow cobbled lanes that now holds some of the best restaurants in the city — small rooms, seasonal menus, and a cooking style that takes Flemish tradition seriously without being bound by it. The Gravensteen itself, a 12th-century moated castle sitting in the middle of the city as if it simply refused to be demolished, is worth an hour inside for the views from the battlements alone.

Ghent has a genuine claim to being one of the most vegetarian-friendly cities in Europe — Thursday has been an unofficial meat-free day since 2009, and the restaurant culture reflects a broader seriousness about plant-based cooking that goes well beyond trend. The Vrijdagmarkt, one of the largest market squares in Belgium, hosts a weekly market and has been the site of public assemblies, executions, and guild celebrations for centuries; it still functions as a working square rather than a tourist set piece. Drink your way through the local beer list at one of the brown cafés near the university quarter, where the taps run to local Ghent specialties alongside the national classics, and the conversation at the next table is probably about something worth overhearing.