LandScope: Travel Diary of An Explorer

GHENT, BELGIUM - City on the river mouth with its lights

By zerrinhosgor - 12/02/2009 09:13:00 AM

Ghent is a historical city with its art, culture and events. The city's name means 'river mouth' or confluence. Until the 13th century Ghent was the biggest city in Europe after Paris; it was bigger than London, Cologne or Moscow. During my short trip to Ghent, I stayed in one of my friends’ place and I had a chance to learn about city, its historical and cultural features, transportation policies and life styles from her. As my friend told me, beside its historical character, Ghent presents a contemporary city view. Ghent has managed to preserve its mediaval power, while keeping up with time. It is a university city and presence of young people and students has turned Ghent into an important cultural centre. Ghent established a nice blend between comfort of living and history – it is not a museum city. It is an alive city.

When I was there,there were lots of restoration and construction works to make the city and cultural life better. Honestly, I must confess that I felt like I was in Istanbul. These initiatives and vitality made me feel like that. Large public squares, ancient buildings, churches, towers and other historical buildings were remarkable nodes in the city.

Especially true mediaval castle in the middle of the city impressed me so much. While we were walking in the city, it appeared in front of us and it was amazing in the evening with its lights. I visited the city at night and it was more desirable for me to feel the real life when tourists left and inhabitants stayed. City was also great with its lights and rivers in the evening.

When you walk in each street, you feel different ambience because every street of the city reflects different character of it. Some streets are narrow which give you a feeling like you are in a historical city, while others are wide and present a modern city view. Second interesting point was the old fish market at St. Veerleplein. There was a restoration works in there to make a new fish market having a walking area with view on to the rivers and hosting an event hall. I think it will be a nice attraction point with its original charm and character.

In Ghent, people try to use bicycles and public transportation for their daily lifes. There are good infrastructure opportunities such as underpasses under bridge to provide continuous cycling routes and the city has an extensive public transport network serving the city centre and surrounding area. These were results of good transportation policies. Ghent can be easily reached by car and national trains from other cities in Belgium.

At the same time,these transport opportunities by car leads to excessive private vehicle usage in the city. In order to counter the traffic problems, a number of plans had been established. With the bicyle plan (1993), cycling infrastucture and bicycle culture were created. A lot of infrastructure was, and is still, constructed along city roads or along the abundant waterways in the city (including some underpasses under bridges). With the mobility plans for the inner city (1997), it was injected a new dynamism into the historical centre of Ghent. Creating large pedestrian area, traffic flow measures, constraints for car usage in city center, traffic calming, and re-designing the streets and squares to make the city more attractive to citizens and visitors were important decisions of that plan. Ghent has one of the largest car-free area in Europe now.

I couldn’t spend more time to discover the city but, I felt its unique character and I look forward to be there again in a short period.

"Ghent is not just a city like any other which will charm you for a moment then let you go without a further thought. No. Like a beautiful woman who is very much aware of her charms, Ghent will seduce you with its passion and fire. You’ll be distraught to leave it and consumed with longing."

Le Guide du Routard

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Allied Powers

SHAPE: A Discovery In NATO Military Services...

By zerrinhosgor - 11/21/2009 04:17:00 AM

These summer, I and my fiance had thought about his military service very much. We tried to guess some interesting places about the place where he would go. The most interesting place that came into our minds was Belgium. Because one of NATO's two strategic commands was there and people from all Nato countries go this military base for their military services. If you live in a foreign country and know about foreign language you can have a chance for doing your service in this base. But it was seen impossible for us, because it is an option for immigrants only. Anyway we had only thought...

After he went for his military service, I planned for a travel to abroad. And I communicated with one of my mother's friend living in Belgium and decided to go and visit them. They live in Mons and when I looked at the city in Google Earth, I saw the SHAPE (Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe) near Mons. I was surprised. In the airplane, I met someone and when I told him the place that I will stay -Mons-, he asked me whether they are related with military. Because Mons is remembered with its military base. I hadn’t known about it.

One of the first places that I wanted to go and see was SHAPE of course, when I reached there. Luckily we found a friend in there and the day was came. I wanted to go there insistently, but they didn’t understand why I wanted to go there so much. It was my secret ;) ... It would be really interesting for me. I was in the city that we talked about my fiance’s military service, so I couldn’t miss that opportunity. He was in another place but I were in SHAPE. That’s it! It was really interesting and when I told him about this, I think he will be surprised.

It was a rainy day when we visited the SHAPE. We met with a friend from Turkey and her husband was a soldier there. She showed us the place. Lots of people was talking about the free shop because of its cheapest price, but it wasn’t. And there were Carrefour shopping center, flower shop, shop selling electronic devices, sport center and apartments. I saw lots of soldiers from different countries, but especially I saw many soldiers from Sweden. There were kids cycling, women shopping and teenagers jogging. There were also good opportunities such as sport center, language courses, etc. for families living there. The place wasn’t so good for a tourist but being there was enough for me.

Is there anyone having a SHAPE pass card taken during her travel?;))... I was lucky, because I went Mons and my friends had an acquaintance from SHAPE.

Now the scope of my visit to there took place. Think about it!!! My fiance doesn’t know the city that I stayed during my Belgium travel and of course the city where SHAPE located in. And I showed him my SHAPE pass card while he was making his military service. What can he think about it? There is a card in his hand and writing SHAPE pass card and my photo on it...

It was worth seeing the astonishment on his face.

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Belgium

Mons, Belgium - Where my belgian story starts

By zerrinhosgor - 11/17/2009 02:03:00 PM

Mons was the city where my travel started and I stayed during my trip to Belgium.

When I first arrived to Mons, I felt a little bit confused. Because there were a few people around and I couldn’t see people strolling in the street. In addition to that, the house that I stayed was far away from the city center and there were no public transportation there. So, first day of my travel, I asked to myself “what will I do here, how will I reach to destinations?”... I was lucky because the family I stayed with was really helpful to me. They provide lots of opportunities for me to reach the other cities and destinations, but I need to tell that if you plan or want to go there, try to stay a place in city center or near the train station.

Mons

Mons is a car-dependant city and we reached the city center in 5 minutes by car. Maybe you can think about walking but it is impossible. There are only motorways and if you are far away from the center it is not meaningful. In fact in the street where my house located in you can not see any people too. People come home and go to work by car and they don’t use the streets. They have not a public life in the site that they live.

Mons - Housing properties

One evening we went out and walked to the my host’s daughter's house and we hadn’t came across anybody. It was really interesting for me who live in a crowded metropolitan city.

Anyway, if we talk about the real city, we should mention about the city center and the lives in it. Mons is a green city. There are lots of trees in the streets and the houses have their own gardens and there are also some big parks. The city center is really different from the other sides of the city.

Mons city center

Cobblestone streets

There were some traditional narrow streets covered by cobblestones and a big city plaza and this side was really alive. But when you go down to the border of the center you face with different features. You can see that the city hadn’t extended from the city center.

There is a motorway surronding the center. It seems like the new houses had been scattered in different areas far from the center. There is no connection between center and peripherial sites.

After I saw the place that I stayed, I hadn’t expected to see such a beautiful center. The “grande place” was big and full of historic buildings. There were a big public space in the center. People were sitting in the street cafes and there was a flower bazaar in the center.

Mons town hall was the most attractive building in the city center. On its facade, the monkey of the Great Guard remains a mystery to this day. This animal is now a symbol of the town. If you stroke its head with the left hand, you will find happiness for at least a year.

Mons town hall

There are also some water features designed for people's attractions. Here was attractive center for inhabitants and tourists. There are also some pedestrian streets without cars and these streets are used by inhabitants for their daily activities such as shopping, strolling, travels between home and work or school.

Grande place - water features

You can easily get involved into the real life that continues in the town. Because when you see some people after seeing empty streets, you start to live with them easily and automatically. I think the time that I went there made me feel like that. Because there were no tourists and I saw the real life sustaining in there in that period.

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Belgium

Different transportation choices in Flemish and Walloon regions in Belgium

By zerrinhosgor - 9/25/2009 10:03:00 AM

I was in Belgium to make a research about historical cities and sustainable transportation in them two weeks ago. I had a chance to stay both in Flemish and Wallon regions of the country. There was a big difference between these two regions in terms of life styles and city characters. I would like to make a contribution to these differences according to their transportation choices.

Brugge

In Flemish cities (Ghent, Brugge, Antwerp, etc), people mostly prefer to use sustainable transportation modes such as bicycles, public transport and walking and transport infrastructures support sustainable transportation modes, by creating bicycle routes and parks, etc..

Mons

But in most of the Walloon cities (Mons, Charleroi, Tournai, etc.) people use cars for their daily transports and you can't see any bicycle routes, streetscape and supporting infrastructure for pedestrians.

These different transportation preferences create different life styles and city structures. People are more healthy and active in Flemish region and Flemish cities are really very compact, animated and mostly crowded cities. These cities also supports sustainable transportation modes to protect their historical and cultural characters.

Brugge

Especially in Brugge, narrow streets providing walking and cycling and pavements supporting these transportation modes are remarkable points in the city. In addition to non-motorized transportation modes, city offers good public transportation opportunities for people. In Ghent, there is a same approach and city supports car-free events and develops good transportation policies. These Flemish cities are in some initiatives to support sustainable transportation for their future plans .

Brugge

Mons

On the other hand, Walloon cities are mostly car dependant cities. Most of people use cars for their short and long distance travels. And city centers are full of car parkings. Although some of them (such as Mons) have lots of historical and cultural heritage, people can not feel this character of the city.They use bicycles for only their leisure activities not for their daily transports. For this reason, you can not see people in the streets so much. They come to the city centers by their car and make shopping or eating or whatever they need for their daily life and spend less time with other people.

Mons

You really feel the differences between in these two region of the country in this context. Flemish region are more alive than the Walloon region and it was a good chance to compare those cities from that point.