Seven of us enjoyed a stay at Anne-Sophie’s lovely, grand Gent townhouse in the beginning of February (2018). Upon arrival she emerged from next door before we’d had much time to wonder how to get in, so panic over - we'd arrived! It was in a good location and everywhere we went only seemed to be about a fifteen minute walk away. All except the train station (Gent-Sint-Pieters) at about 25 minutes, so I’d opt for wheeled luggage unless you want to use the tram instead (my arms/back hurt by the end, both ways!). It is quite a nice walk along the (Leie) river though. The house is quite old but in very good condition. It was light and airy, with nice big windows and really high ceilings. Everything seemed very stylish. I would class the art as ‘interesting’! Beds were comfy and rooms were all a good size, plus there were enough bathrooms to cope with us all – top/third floor shower room (shower/sink/toilet), second floor en-suite (bath/shower/sink/toilet) and ground floor toilet (with sink). There was extra bedding but no-one needed it, the heating was on when we got there and didn’t need adjusting. Towels were provided but remember your shampoo and shower gel (although you do get to help yourself to leftovers from previous guests!). Apart from sleeping and washing, we only spent a small amount of time in the living room and kitchen. They were large enough and pretty well equipped but we didn’t use the washer, dryer, small counter-top oven, microwave or TV. The fridge chilled beer, the dishwasher cleaned glasses, the kettle boiled water and the filter coffee machine produced the black stuff. The Wi-Fi took a hammering and proved adequate if not superfast. We didn’t set foot in the small outside space as the weather was mostly cold and wet. There were three front door keys to share between the group which made things manageable. Anne-Sophie is obviously very house-proud (and rightly so), but it was amusing how many small notes were posted around the place. These were all light-hearted and mostly of the form ‘please try not to mark the walls’, etc. but some also contained useful information and interesting titbits – we never met him but apparently next-door’s cat is a ginger tom named Monseigneur and the wooden floor on the top floor was named Walter! ;) My tips – (1) watch out for bikes, (2) avoid the really close-by Italian called Otium (it’s possibly alright but we had a bad experience), but (3) do eat at Het Gouden Hoofd. (4) The tour at the Gruut Brewery was enjoyable. (5) The street waffles were always pretty good and (6) Gent Noses (cuberdon) are amazing (the purple ones anyway). Oh, and (6) watch out for more bikes, and I still don’t know how their zebra crossings are supposed to work! Gent is a lovely cosmopolitan university city with lots of gothic architecture. Shops, supermarkets, bars and restaurants were plentiful and close-by. We managed...