This is truly a not to be missed museum experience. As many of you who follow me know I primarily…read morewrite food reviews yet on occasion something strikes me as specials and very worthy of a review. This is one of those things. In a former alms house next to a church this museum is in two parts around a courtyard with tables and a cafe. The first part of the exhibit was on the world famous "fun fairs" of Europe, Belgium in particular. These are traveling amusement activities that entail everything from rides, side shows, puppet shows, oddities, tarot card readers, etc. These are now UNESCO protected. The exhibits throughout are interactive and quite entertaining. The second portion, across the courtyard is a series of rooms, marked by the twelve months of the year, showing everyday life and accessories of 20th century Belgium. It is so well done and interesring and really captures daily living, events and traditions through this period of time. What I found fascinating is how much it paralleled life in the US with a few exceptions. For example they didn't have Halloween until recently. Christmas gifts were opened on Dec.6 brought by St. Nicholas, not Santa Claus (who comes later) and rituals around marriage and death. It's obvious a lot of our traditions in the US were carryover from European immigrants. It was also great to see the similarities of life in the 70s, 80s and 90s when the differences in the world got smaller and fewer. A great exhibit and museum that culturally makes a lot of sense and very educational.

Found this place by accident. If you ever wondered what it was like to visit a crazy uncle that…read morecollected random things from the 60-80's, this is worth a visit. Each room themed with old school toys and machines.

This gets three stars for being the only museum of Gent's history. I did learn quite a bit, but I…read morefound the setup to be very frustrating. I got the audio tour since I don't speak Flemish. Unfortunately, it turned out that for the most part, the audio tour just replicates the main placards in each room that are already in English. For the other pieces with audio excerpts, the tour is organized very poorly, where sometimes it just describes an object, and other times, the number is near a specific object, but the description is for the entire room. This really could have been done better. The woman at the front desk was very adamant that I lock up my bag, even though this didn't seem to be mandatory policy for the museum, and they charge for the lockers. Overall, this was not a great experience.

Regardless of the content of the collection, this is an all star museum. The galleries are…read morewelcoming, visually stimulating, creative, and interactive. I learned a lot about Gent (mostly from the interactive maps), and felt immersed in the story of the place throughout the visit. The biggest drawback was that all of the labels are in Dutch so it wasn't always easy to know much about the objects I was looking at. On the flipside, I wasn't expecting there to be much English and the fact that all of the large wall panels are in English made the trip very informative and allowed for me to follow along through the course of history. As an added bonus they have free wifi and a really great little cafe with outdoor seating.

Oh my goodness! Positives - it's a good walk to get there and back. Almost everything is in Dutch,…read moreso we weren't really understanding anything. The whole place was so creepy. I kept wondering if we were going to get out.

I had never heard of this place or of this man, but the museum is really worth a visit. First: the…read morebuilding complex is a beautiful example of 19th century neogothic architecture: many smaller internal gardens, very, very quiet, bricks in all sorts of shapes turned into instruments for a gothic revival. Waw! But not only the exterior is worth a vist, so is the museum. I only visited the permanent collection. The history of psychosis is very well documented with nice pieces form the Far east (now that I think of it: there is also a part dedicate to the efforts of the Fathers of Charity in Congo), and a view on the slow development of the views on psychic problems in the West. Some parts I found a bit boring, because I am not a physicist but I can understand the fascination about how X rays were discovered and turned into tools or CTT scans (I actually found this even myself quite fascinating although I'm an absolute layman) You can reach this place using tram 1 (or taking a taxi)

The Design Museum was mentioned in a New York Times article about Gent that came out shortly before…read moremy trip to Belgium. I bookmarked it because we were planning to spend a full day in town. While I do enjoy a variety of museums, this particular one didn't really hold my interest. That's not to say it won't hold yours! If you're someone who loves a behind the scenes look at how things are made, or you want to know about different textiles and other materials, furniture design, etc. you will love this place. I saw some interesting things in an exhibition about fibres and plastics, but the museum as a whole didn't leave me wanting more. To each their own!

Right off the bat, I will admit I am not much of a "design" type. Certainly I have a style, and I…read moreknow what I admire, but maybe its not necessarily what is hip or up to the standards of the design community. That said, I also don't necessarily see why some things are so special when they don't appeal to me. But art is subjective, so I just have to remember it's always a matter of taste. As for the Design Museum in Gent, well, it's pretty fantastic. I visited when two specific exhibitions were on display: Pieter De Bruyne (Pioneer of Postmodernism) and Destrøy/Design (A selection from the collection of the Frac Nord-Pas de Calais). Both I liked, for different reasons, but the one thing they had in common was that they made the viewer think critically about the art. There is also a permanent exhibition, which I wasn't as fond of. Because it was all in Dutch, it was hard for me to figure out what the "point" was, or the common thread holding things together. A few pieces here and there caught my attention, but mostly I breezed through it. Still, if there is a special exhibit here, I recommend stopping by. I spent maybe 30-45 minutes here, but people who are more art-minded might linger through the four floors even longer.

In my previous visits to Ghent, I had not run across this historic residence. My colleague and I…read morewere strolling after lunch and happened upon it. He said he had walked through it in the past but there were no tours at the time (that has changed). He thought it was actually an old hotel, though, in reality, it was a palacious residence when it was occupied. For a freebie, this was a great opportunity to see an upper-class European residence dating to the 18th-Century. It also gave a peek into the 19th-Century since many of the updates current at that time were still evident. What fascinated me the most was the fact that this house was constructed over the top of five existing houses when it was built. Hence, the layout was a bit unique. Even though the house has not yet been fully restored and furnished, it allows for a worthwhile tour. What has been restored is quite nice because they have tried to remain as authentic as possible. For example, they have contacted the original supply houses for the wallpaper and have matched it to the originals in many rooms. The ballroom is impressive with its parquet floor and the paintings made to look like reliefs are particularly interesting. The staff here are exceedingly friendly and engaging. The tour guide did a great job in explaining the nuances of the structure, particularly the evolution of the updates. This place is worth seeing if you are in Ghent. This facility is only open afternoons Friday, Saturday and Sunday so you have to plan accordingly.

On a very wet November Saturday,I walked through Ghent's Citadel Park and I spent a memorable day…read moreat Ghent's MSK Art Museum.Although it is appreciably smaller than the Old Masters Art Museum in Brussels,there were plenty of paintings and works of Art that captivated me from the time it opened to the time it closed.I have confined this review to its paintings from the 14th Century to the end of the 18th Century.Its collection of Renaissance and Baroque Period Paintings with devotional subject matter is outstanding.Some of my favorite devotional theme paintings were Puccio di Simone's"Coronation of the Virgin"14th Century Italian Trecento,Colin de Coter's"Adoration of Magi",Master of the Family of Saint Anne's"Saint Anne and Family",Jacob Oostansen's""Calvary",Jaime Huguet's"Crucifixion of Saint Peter"(Spanish Renaissance),Marius Van Reymerswaele's"Calling of Saint Matthew"Jacob Jordaens'"Flight From Egypt",Peter Paul Rubens'"Saint Francis receiving Stigmata"(a quintessential Counter Reformation Painting),Gasper de Crayer's"Judgement of King Solomon",and Hendrick Van Vliet's Church Interiors with marvelous lighting effects,among many others.Other favorites were Theodore Rombouts'"Allegory of Senses",Anton Van Dyck's"Jupiter and Antiope",Adriean Van Utrecht's"Fisherman's Stall",Aelbert Vander Schoor's"Smoker",Melchior d'Hondecoeter's"Waterbirds",Jacques Fouquier's"Panorama of Avignon",and Jan Van Goyen's"Landscape With Castle",among numerous others. The next day,I returned to this fine art museum to concentrate on their 19th and 20th Century works of Art. Furthermore,I appeciated the helpfulness of their staff and fine curatorial work.

A part of me wanted to say that this is just another art gallery, but honestly there isn't such a…read morething as 'just another art gallery', especially when the gallery that we are referring to happens to be in Europe. This particular gallery, while I didn't necessarily stumble across, I didn't realise that it existed until the night of my arrival in Ghent. The reason is that I got it mixed up with the modern art gallery. However, this gallery also contains modern art, but along with that it also have quite a lot of traditional works of art, whether they be impressionist or whether they be of the old masters. Another interesting part of this gallery was that there was a room that was set aside to show us the technique of restoring the older paintings, and included one particular work of art (namely the altarpiece) that was being restored at the moment.