Euro Day 16 - Heaven Ghent

Given the relentless pace of the Paris trip, we had a planned down day in Ghent - at least for the girls.  I had my eye on attending the Ghent-Antwerp soccer match that was being played that day.  Their stadium Ghelamco Arena holds 20k and their supporters are known to be enthusiastic.  The team is referred to as the Buffalo - apparently due to a visit that Wild Buffalo Bill had to the city back at the turn of last century.  I had been stalking their website and Twitter account for the last two months waiting for tickets to go onsale, as these games generally sell out. They finally went on sale two weeks ago but unfortunately discovered you had to be a registered user before April 1st to be eligible to buy tickets (I registered in June). The restriction is apparently some security measure which leads me to believe that they think terrorists are terrible planners.  

So Jake and I rode our bikes down to the stadium when the ticket office opened at 10am to see if there was anything availble but it was complete sold out.  We returned 3 hours later to see if there is anybody selling tickets but there as zero scalping activity around the stadium.  So we left disappointed.

I convinced my dear bride to go on a bike ride out into the countryside.  We had a great ride - although I took a wrong turn on our way back and ended up in the middle of the city - which is a bit hectic on a Sunday afternoon and riding bikes on cobblestone is suboptimal.

We ended the day with a dinner out and walk around the city.  The lighting in the downtown area is spectacular and provides some really amazing reflections along the canals.   The only disappointment was that we had such a late dinner that all the gelato places had closed up shop for the evening.

Returning back to our apartment I had to deal with an issue that arose yesterday.  Our Airbnb reservation was cancelled for our next stop and I had to scramble to find an alternative.  This trip is my first Airbnb experience and our first two spots have been fantastic.  This trip would have been nearly impossible trying to stay in hotels.  Our place is Ghent is spectacular with three floors, three bedrooms, great views of the canal and street and 10 minute walk to train and downtown.

View from our apartment in Ghent

However this is the second reservation that I have made that was subsequently cancelled.   Although I do not have much latitude to cancel without losing most of my money - it seems like the property owners have much less incentive to keep reservations.   I found another place without too much issue but certainly a hassle and risk of using Airbnb.