Unlike Brugge, Ghent has not been completely over run by tourists, but get here soon if you want to avoid them. As soon as the masses discover this town square, it will become another Euro-Disney.

Parking was difficult to find, and in fact, we almost gave up, but our desire to see the golden dragon prevailed. You can view the Golden Dragon on any bottle of Gulden Draak beer, found, of course, at John's Grocery.

Perched high a top the Belfort en Lakenhalle (belfry, built around 1321), with its' 52 bell carillon sits the real Golden Dragon. The story goes, in 1092 the crusades to take Jerusalem started from the castle in Ghent. After years of fighting, the few soldiers still alive returned from Constantanople with the Golden Dragon as a prize of their victory. Since that time, the dragon has appeared in religious painting of the area as a symbol of Hell.

Across from the belfort is the Sint Baafskathedraal (Saint Bavo's Cathedral) which is where we spent most of our time in Ghent. Probably the most splendid cathedral we have seen to date its' massive walls are filled with history. L. Delvaux constructed the pulpit in the 1740's out of white marble from Carrara and Danish oak. It shows the tree of life and presents the story of "triumph over error." It was used until the mid 1970's. Other treasures include a painting by P.P. Rubens "Saint Bavo's entrance into the monastery of Ghent." (1624), and a partial statue of St. Bavo which contains one of the bones from his spine.

Our tour guide literally appeared out of nowhere and started leading us around the cathedral. Full of facts, he gave us insight into every detail of the history. If you ever stop here, stand in the entrance and look lost and confused. That's a sure sign you need a tour guide. They will find you.

After a while of "meandering" (really we were lost, but meandering sounds so much better), we came upon the DeDolle Brouwers (the Mad Brewers) in Essen. A fascinating brewery, it was started in 1980 and is run by Kris Herteleer, his wife (Els de Muelenare) and his mother (Balthazar Herteleer).

Kris does all the brewing by himself. He won't do more than 40 brews a year and each brew is between 2000 and 3000 liters. On bottling days, his wife helps out. It takes from 8 am to 3 pm to bottle 30,000 bottles. Their bottling/washing machine weighs 26 tons, which includes 4 tons of oil. The building itself was destroyed during World War I, and was rebuilt in 1922. It has been a brew house since it was rebuilt. DeDolle doesn't filter their beer, nor do they add any coloring. Instead of using steam heat, they direct flame the copper, which caramelizes the beer and gives it a darker color. All of these factors combine to produce a truly unique flavor.

We got the rare opportunity to go inside the primary fermentation room. Check out the pictures.

DeDolle is a fun, festive brewery to visit with a completely different look than any we've seen to date. If you stop here, check out the paintings on the walls - all painted by Kris - and ask to look through their guest books.

We Just Can't Get Enough
With our success of finding the brewery, we were inspired to travel further.
Belgium Road System: 2
Stupid Travelers: 0

We did find the Peace Monument in Diksmuide. I'm sorry I can't tell you the proper name. I thought I was taking a picture of the name marker, but upon further reflection, I believe it was a no parking sign. There was a lot of construction going on around the monument and it was closed, so there wasn't much to see anyway. Disappointed, but not defeated, we headed for the sea. That was as specific as we got. Anything that big would be hard to miss, and no matter which direction we went we would eventually find a sea. Unless of course, we drove in circles, but I believe we would have figured that out eventually.