The core, on foot
The Graslei and Korenlei face each other across the Leie, two rows of medieval warehouses that once handled grain and now hold cafés with blankets on the chairs. Sit on the quay in the sun and the whole city passes by. Ten minutes north, the Gravensteen stands in the middle of the street: a castle from 1180, restored at the end of the nineteenth century, with a moat and a view from the keep.
Saint Bavo's Cathedral holds the Ghent Altarpiece, finished by Jan van Eyck in 1432 and now shown in a darkened side chapel with its own ticket and time slot. The Belfry, a few streets away, has a dragon on top and a carillon. Between them lies the old centre: the Vrijdagmarkt, the Patershol, the Prinsenhof, streets that turn without warning into canals. The walk between them takes five minutes.
Ghent is big enough to get lost in for an afternoon and small enough to walk home. Trams run through the middle, but the centre rewards walking: the streets change character every two hundred metres, from student bars to cloth halls to the fish market on Sint-Veerleplein. Wear something comfortable and leave the map in your pocket. The trams are for the tired.
Beer with its own rules
Gruut brews without hops. The brewery uses a medieval mix of herbs and spices — the gruut of the name — and the result is a blond, amber or brown beer with a bitterness that comes from somewhere other than hops. The taproom is a short walk north of the centre, family-run, and unbothered by the fact that almost nobody else in Belgium still brews this way.
Dok Brewing Company occupies a former metal workshop in Dok-Noord, with thirty taps and a crowd that looks like the design department of the university. Stroom, run by a Belgian-American pair, works the same edge. In the centre, De Dulle Griet pours five hundred beers on the Vrijdagmarkt and makes you surrender a shoe for its house Max; Het Waterhuis aan de Bierkant has a canal terrace and its own Gandavum.
The beer culture here is everyday rather than monumental. Students drink at four in the afternoon, cafés fill after lectures, and the best lists are in rooms that also serve lunch. De Hopduvel, in Dok-Noord, is the place for bottles to take home. Prices are lower than Bruges and the welcome is less tired. Bring an empty bag. There is no cover charge and no hurry.
Practical
Gent-Sint-Pieters is the main station, two and a half kilometres south of the centre; tram 1 runs from the platform to the Korenmarkt in about fifteen minutes. Gent-Dampoort is closer for trains from Antwerp and the north. Tickets for the trams come from machines at the stops, and the same card works on buses. Trams run every few minutes during the day.
Book the Ghent Altarpiece in advance; the chapel is small and the slots are finite. The Gravensteen and the Belfry sell tickets at the door but are busier at weekends. In the ten days around the third weekend of July the Gentse Feesten takes over: free stages, packed squares, bars open until dawn. It is enormous fun and a terrible time to see the city quietly.
Outside festival time Ghent is quiet on Sunday mornings and busy on Thursday evenings, when the student cafés fill. Thursday is also the city's vegetarian day, observed by schools and many restaurants. Carry cash for the smaller bars; cards work in most places but not all. The centre is small, and a taxi is rarely worth the wait. The Graslei is best before the terraces open.