We will be having a Saturday outing to Gent in May, giving the opportunity for husbands and partners to join us.

We have arranged a coach from Antwerp to leave at 9.30 am from the Crowne Plaza Hotel. Our tour guide will be our fellow ABIW member Christine de Brabandere, who is a tour guide for Gent. She will take us on a tour of the city (see the itinerary for the day below) giving us the opportunity to see some of the newer additions to Gent as well as some of the more familiar buildings that the city is famous for.

We will have a lunch stop and continue our tour in the afternoon, ending with a stop for coffee or tea before getting the coach back to Antwerp around 5.30 pm.

Cost: €45 per person, inclusive of the bus transport, lunch and afternoon tea or coffee.

To register: please sign up with Jill Brewer at jillian_122@msn.com. Then make your transfer of €45 per person to the ABIW account (BE82 0014 6806 3068) marking your transfer “Gent trip for your name”. The booking deadline and final date for payment is Monday 15 May.

Itinerary

Depart Antwerp Crowne Plaza Hotel 09.30.

Arrive Gent around 10.45.

Visit Saint Peters abbey (Sint-Pietersplein), one of the oldest abbeys of Gent.

Visit Saint Peters church (beautiful baroque church).

Lunch at De Vooruit kunstencentrum (menu of the day); De Vooruit is a monumental art nouveau building.

Visit de Krook, the brand new spectacular city library of Gent.

With the bus, visit Het Klein Begijnhof, a splendid beguinage in the Lange Violettenstraat.

Coffee or tea (or something else …) in the coffee tearoom, Folie à deux, Filip Van Arteveldestraat. This is a city house recently opened by two sisters; it is very cosy and in pastel colours, and they have delicious pastries …

Back home around 17.30.