We got up pretty early and made sure everything was packed in our suitcases. We then had to carry our suitcases down four flights of stairs. Yikes. Talk about a workout. We decided to take the tram instead of wheeling our suitcases over to the station. We actually made it to the proper platform with a decent amount of time, so when the train came we were the first ones on and were able to get good seats where our luggage would fit and we could sit comfortably. It...

We decided we did have enough time to go to Ghent to see the castle Merina wanted (although it would be closed when we got there), so we had a leisurely walk back to the trains through street and parks. Ghent was on the way back to Brussels, so not out of the way at all. The tram info lady was really helpful and we got a tram up close to the castle, but had to walk past some other neat churches to get there. The Gravensteen castle was cool - just a big hunk of c...

Had another slow start to the morning, but we were able to still use our 24 hr bus pass to get up to Centraal station to catch the train to Gouda. It was a bit of a ride, but we got to see Dutch farms with their cute cows. It isn't far from the train station to the centre of Gouda. And right in the middle of the square is the huge cheese market. Giant circles of cheese just stacked together in the middle of the square. I tried some different types of cheese, ...