Ghent

We stopped in Ghent en route to Cologne. We only had a few hours but stopped here mainly to see Gravensteen castle, it was a bit drizzly to start off with but brightened up nicely for a wee wander round the city. We definitely only saw a small part and although similar to Bruges it had it's own charm with some lovely market squares. I think it's certainly worth a more lengthy return visit in the future. 
Unfortunately our train journey onto Cologne provided more adventure than I really wanted when the conductor looked at our tickets and laughed...no we didn't know there was a German train strike on - can you not tell by my horrified expression?? Although he reassured us that Aachen was a lovely place to stay, having reserved accommodation in Cologne I wasn't particularly happy! Fortunately it all worked out ok in the end and we were only delayed about 45 mins but it was a pretty uncomfortable journey standing as it appeared to be the first train that had run for some time. But ah well, it added to the adventure!