Results matching “paint”

Street artist AKSE is based in Manchester (originally from France), but he has previously painted murals in London in the past. His most recent London mural appeared early this spring with musician Prince. The mural was painted at the corner of Great Eastern Street and Old Street. AKSE's work always consists of realistic portraits of characters or people, and I always enjoy seeing his work.

Prince was a musician probably most famous or most remembered for the song "Purple Rain", and he passed away in 2016. He is considered a musical icon today. 

Additional work by AKSE on this blog can be seen below:

Manchester Street Art
Akse 19 Paints Tyrion Lannister from "Game of Thrones"
Street Art: Akse, Vhils, Bailon, Sliks, Grud, Drypnz, and Vinz

Street artist and poet Angry Dan has been painting colourful murals with limericks on them since last summer when I discovered "More drama than a banana" on a wall on Great Eastern Street. Angry Dan's murals are around Shoreditch (and also Camden), and I've been capturing them when I have seen them. Angry Dan is from London and started to draw his poems on the walls last year and has been enjoying it and increasing his profile. Below are some of the pieces that I have photographed from him.

"A cantankerous man from Carlisle sold loquorice lace by the mile; I said 'that's eccentric; why don't you go metric?' He said 'kilometres ain't worth my while.'"

"The limerick form so it's reckoned, has a first line that rhymes with the second. On the fourth and the third, something different is heard while the fifth returns to the beckoned."

"When trying to write from the heart, it's hard to know where to start. More easy, I find to write from my mind and trust that my feelings impact."

"The bumbling figure of eight was stumbling home rather late; he tripped in hi stride and fell on his side, succumed to his infinite fate."

"Imagine in your mind's eye the pool is pale blue sky; your beautiful limbs are magnificent wings and thus to swim is to fly."

"I met an old codger named Fred with a single grey hair on his head and said 'Just your luck, that why don't you pluck that?' He said 'f*** that, I'll dye it instead.'"

The poems get people to stop to read them, and most of them bring a smile to the face.

Portugese street artist Vhils has been asked to create a mural for the facade of a new restaurant Gold on Portobello Road in Notting Hill. This new celebrity restaurant is planning to serve fire-cooked food and have a late night bar on site over multiple floors. The location is the former pub named Portobello Gold, which is how this got its name. As part of the opening, street artist Vhils has created this new mural on the fascade, but it has raised concerns in the area and the neighbours are not happy.

The council and neighbours have raised issues because many of this buildings on this part of the road are in bright pastel colours, and this is the only one that sticks out. Notting Hill has had its share of grafitti over the years, so this isn't anything new for the area. However, the main issue seems to be the subject of the artwork. It features a face with two huge eyes that appear to watch you. Many have considered it creepy and not in line with the rest of the street. 

Vhils has painted in primarily east London many times with giant faces constructed by carving them out of the raw material, such as plaster and brickwork. While I do love the large face coming out of the brickwork and exposing it underneath, I do agree that I probably wouldn't like it opposite of where I live, though I probably would get used to it being there. Maybe it could have been a giant kitten or puppy eyes instead.

Previous work in this blog with work of Vhils is here:

Street Art: Akse, Vhils, Bailon, Sliks, Grud, Drypnz, and Vinz

In case you are not aware, the Carnaby Street chocolate shop (London's flagship) of Choccywoccydoodah closed early last year. I actually did not know until I went to the area toward the end of last year and hoped to go in to see what they had, and the shop was no longer there. After looking online, I discovered that they had moved to Covent Garden (near Seven Dials). I did not even realise. Choccywoccydoodah started its life in Brighton in the early 2000s before creating a branch in Carnaby Street, which was open for several years. Sadly, for reasons unknown, that branch was shut and a new one was opened near Covent Garden. (This visit was made in mid-April, and the shop has since closed; Choccywoccydoodah are no longer operating in London but can still be found in Brighton.)

The new shop is a little bit out of the way. It has one window, though it's not exactly a feature window like the previous shop was. This street is down one of the side streets that does not get as much footfall, though there are a couple nice shops on this street. Unfortunately, all of the buildings here are in a row and do not stand out, so the shop is easily ignored.

The cafe is downstairs, painted blue and smaller than the Carnaby Street branch. There aren't any windows, so it's actually pretty dark down here, and phone signal (and WiFi) is non-existant. Service was friendly, and the cafe was busy during the week in the afternoon when I visited it. However, it didn't feel as nice; it paled in comparison to the Carnaby Street cafe.

I ordered a molten hot chocolate, and this could be milk, white, or dark chocolate. I had the dark chocolate version, and it was really nice. I enjoyed it more than the last time I visited the cafe. Unfortunately, they were out of whipped cream, but I had marshmallows on top.

I also ordered the dark chocolate chocolate cake. This came with vanilla ice cream with a dollop of cherry sauce and drizzled with chocolate sauce. The cake was delicious too and not too sweet like the last time I visited. Most of the cake actually went home with me. 

So, overall, I enjoyed the cake and the hot chocolate and found this better on this visit than on my previous visit. However, the new building is at least a couple of steps back. It isn't as presentable, and the cafe is not nearly as nice. I am hoping that this move is only temporary, but they have been based here for over a year, so I don't see them moving any time soon. 

(This visit was made in mid-April, and the shop has since closed; Choccywoccydoodah are no longer operating in London but can still be found in Brighton.)

Street artist Phlegm has been painting walls in London for the past several years, though it has been a little while since he last visited London from his home town of Sheffield to paint. The most recent work by the artist was painted toward the end of last year in Ion Square and is called "Hydra Towers", featuring the artist's black and white characters emerging from tall towers where bird cages sit on top.

The artwork takes pride of place on the tall building at Ion Square, which is near Columbia Road and just off Hackney Road and replaces a mural by Alex Senna from early 2017.

The artwork is a beautiful piece that uses the existing features of the building, such as the windows and door, and incorporates them into the artwork. Below, you can see a close-up of the main tower, which uses the main windows scaling up the building. This tower also has a door at the bottom, which has been painted and incorporated into the design to look like an old wooden door. It has been beautifully done.

To see this piece, head over to Ion Square off of Hackney Road. It is still in excellent shape, although it is a hard-to-photograph piece because it is such a large scale with other buildings around. 

Some additional artwork by Phlegm in this blog can be seen on the following pages:

Newcastle Street Art
New Mural by Phlegm on Old Street
Phlegm's Mural on Hanbury Street
Phlegm and ROA Street Art at South Bank
Baroque the Streets: Dulwich Street Art
Street Art: Phlegm

For the past couple of years now, the media has been telling us that a Lego Brick Bar pop-up will be coming to London. Well, at some point last year, tickets were finally released for the four-day event. The location was unknown at the time of booking, and it wasn't revealed until a couple of weeks ago. The secret location was Oval Space in East London. We were promised over a million bricks with furniture and other items being made out of bricks as well as brick-inspired food and drinks. I am a big fan of Lego, so I booked tickets for myself and the bloke on the first available slot on Saturday (11:00am). We were asked to be twenty minutes early, and they were just opening the venue and sorting out the gating and ticketing. So, we waited around in the cold and windy outdoors.

Just a note that this pop-up is called "Brick Bar" and does not reference the famous plastic toy brick company, Lego, although it was obviously inspired by Lego. But, I don't think Lego would allow a toy to be associated with a drinking pop-up bar with colourful names for the ball pit and DJ table. The plastic bricks were the off-brand Chinese imports and not Lego bricks. There were also large bricks, Lego brick heads, and a few flashing blocks to sit on. But, not all of the furniture has been made of plastic bricks. So, there was no mention of "Lego", but it was obviously implied.

I saw one person wearing a Lego Batman costume. A few people brought their kids, and I noticed that they seemed to be having a better time throughout the duration.

A LOT of people had tickets for the 11:00am slot, so my first stop was to the food queue to get food, doughnuts and then to the bar to get a drink. 

A selection of burgers (known as "brick burgers") were available. These were made with fresh ingredients. Chicken, beef, and vegetarian were included. They also had chips. Now, from the promotional material, I expected these to be plastic brick-inspired. The sandwiches were, though the chips were not, and I think it could have been fairly easy to cut chips like bricks. The sandwiches were made of plain coloured bread. To make them look brick-shaped, the circles were cut out of an extra slice of bread and placed on top. Now, my problem is that the bread fell apart easily, so they were extremely messy to eat, and they did not provide wet wipes. So, how many people went from eating to handling bricks?

One seller was selling doughnuts, and one of these flavours was inspired by Lego. One square one was made to look like a Lego head. 

And, finally, that brings me to the Brick Bar bar. Not all drinks were served in a mock plastic brick plastic mug. Only alcohol was served in them, so if you just wanted a soft drink, you were out of luck and could not have it in the plastic brick mug. The soft drinks were emptied into a smaller plastic cup, and the remainder of the contents of the can was thrown out. I wanted the plastic brick mug, and thus I had to order a gin and tonic (the options were limited). This came with one small shot of gin and an extra small can of tonic water as a mixer. That was it! This was cheap and stingy giving out these tiny drinks in such a large glass and at expensive prices; the prices were more expensive than going to one of the nearby bars and buying the same thing. Also, I didn't care to be drinking alcohol and drinking such a small amount with my food.

A DJ at a table called "shitting bricks" was cranking out tunes, and she did a good job keeping the music flowing, and a man was calling out different activities (which I will discuss later). There was a giant throne with a few Lego costumes on the floor and a ping pong table that had been covered with bricks. There was a water fountain made out of Lego glued on to the side, but it was broken, and water was spilling over the floor. There was also a ball pit in the corner called "balls deep". And, I will remind you that there were a few kids at the venue, and they seemed to be having a better time and were hanging out in the ball pit. Someone had a baby in the ball pit. As soon as small children or babies go into a ball pit, that puts it off for me. Ball pits are very unhygenic places. I'm not saying that I don't like children or babies; I just know that these young humans do not really have any control over bodily fluids and tend to expel a lot of fluids.

So, I mentioned the man calling out different activities. Well, there were not many activities to go around. In the hour that I visited, only two activities for prizes were conducted. The first activity was to find ten gold-painted bricks were hidden around the different collections of plastic bricks. Well, great, but that means only one team can look for all ten bricks and convince others who may have found the gold bricks that they wanted the prize. The announcer announced that a couple took off to look immediately for the gold bricks. (I was standing in the queue at the bar and had my food to eat then, but this put me off even attempting to look.) Then, another activity was to build a flying object in ten minutes, but the announcer again highlighted that someone was already building a plane, so they got a head start. Again, I was eating by then and couldn't do anything, but had also been put off that someone had already made progress before the countdown. 

Now, after eating, I thought that I'd take a look around at the creations on the walls and also make my own creation. However, the room was a huge room, but the issue is that there were only three big boxes of plastic bricks, and everyone was crowded around them as many of them were in corners of the room and not easy to access, so getting to them was not possible. The whole middle of the room was virtually empty with people crowded along the walls. There were three or four small "tables" made with Lego in the middle of the room with about ten of the glowing bricks. There was not nearly enough places to sit or create Lego. Also, a lot of Lego bricks were scattered on the floor.

Overall, the event was disappointing, and unfortunately the bloke and I were not the only ones to feel that way. I expected more brick creations (furniture, the whole bar, etc), and they should have had more activities for prizes or at least someone with more charisma announcing. This event should have been so much better as they could have done so much more and organised it in a much better way. For example, little things like changing the layout and having more brick containers and tables and seating around the area for building and more props. Overall, I give this a 1 out of 5 stars. This is one of the most disappointing events that I have ever been to, and I spent over 140.00 on the entry fee and the food.

London-based street artist Zabou has been busy this year creating new murals. I managed to photograph the most recent ones for this year. The largest mural painted and the most recent one is "The Glitch (Clockwork Orange)" on the Village Underground wall off of Great Eastern Street in Shoreditch. This mural seems to tie in with the re-release of the cult film, which was banned in the UK for many years.

For the past few years, Zabou has been painting the wall at the start of Broadway Market. This was updated earlier in the year as a tribute to David Bowie.

Previously, the same wall was painted with a tribute to Mexican artist "Frida", which was previously painted on this same wall. I never got to see the finished piece last year, so the below photograph is from Zabou's InstaGram account. In addition, the photograph next to it is also from her account because it had been completely painted over in less than a week. The work is "Born to Paint" and features what I assume is a self-portrait of the artist in street art mask gear. This piece was located on Brick Lane.

Also near Broadway Market is a new mural on a shutter dedicated to Sherlock Holmes, using the portrayal of the character by Benedict Cumberbatch. This short series reboot of the famous detective books to television has launched Cumberbatch's career and made Sherlock Holmes popular again.

For more information and to see more work from Zabou on this blog, please look at the following links:

Zabou "The Shining" and Refresh of Salvador Dali in Spitalfields
Villana and Zabou Collaborate on Amy Winehouse Street Art
Zabou paints Sid Vicious from 'The Sex Pistols'
Zabou Paints Freda #2 at Broadway Market
Zabou Paints Salvador Dali on Commercial Road
Koeone and Zabou Collaborate
"Keep Out!" Street Art by Zabou
Zabou's 'Cabinet of Curiosity' Street Art
Leake Street Tunnels Street Art, Spring 2016
Recent Street Art by Zabou
Street Art: Zabou

This is my last post on my long weekend break to Belgium toward the end of March. During my visit, I stayed in Bruges and explored the city, and I also took a day trip to nearby Ghent. Overall, I had two and a half days (three nights) in Belgium. So, where did I stay while I was in Bruges sight-seeing? I stayed at Huis 't Schaep, which translates to "House of the Sheep". I'll tell you a bit more about it, but first, check out my room with this wonderful four poster bed.

So, if you're interested to see what I got up to in Bruges, you can read my post A Day and a Half in Bruges, Belgium, and if you're interested in what I did in Ghent, you can read my post Half a Day in Ghent, Belgium. But, if you want to read more about the guesthouse Huis 't Schaep (which partially dates to medieval ages), then continue reading.

The guesthouse today is located in the centre of Bruges; it is only about a ten-minute walk to the main square. The guesthouse is listed and has so much history. It actually used to be two houses, but these separate houses have been combined into one. One of the houses was built in medieval times, and the other part was built in the 1600s. They belonged to the Coucke family; the medieval house was their home, and the newer building was their workshop. The Coucke family made stained glass windows and tiles. The kilns for the stained glass were outside the workshop and are still in situ, though I think they belong to another building now.

Original stained glass artwork, tiles, wood carvings, and some revealed wall paintings are in situ. Before the House of the Sheep was used as a guesthouse in its current form, it used to be an inn in the 1800s, with spaces for horses and carriages to pull up in front of the old medieval part of the house (where the breakfast room is now). 

In addition to the bedrooms, visitors can enjoy some time in an open lounge, which has been decorated beautifully and includes fantastic fireplace tiles and carvings. This room leads onto an outside balcony where visitors can sit and enjoy the outside. Here you will find some books and information about Bruges and a refridgerator with an "honesty bar" (alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and snacks).

The attention to detail is fantastic with original stained glass and beautiful details when you look at every corner.

I didn't get a good photograph, but when you come in the large door of Huis 't Schaep from the street, you enter into the inner courtyard between the two buildings and see a grand staircase and beautiful carvings. This entrance hall is made to impress and would have impressed many who had come to the family looking to have some artwork created. There are a couple of pictures on the walls depicting the original drawing contracts that the family had made.

I stayed in the Rembrandt room, and it is actually more than just a bedroom but probably best described more as a boutique suite. On the right-hand side is the spacious bedroom with the four poster bed. The bed even has a mechanism to lift the head half or leg half to aid in comfort while sleeping or lying in bed. Originally, these rooms were where the drawings and workings of the stained glass would have taken place, and bits of paint have been stripped back from the fireplace to reveal parts of the beautiful design underneath.

In the middle of the hallway is a separate toilet room and a bath room opposite with a large tiled shower, bath tub, and two sinks. 

On the left-hand side of the door when entering the room is a separate lounge with a small television, books, coffee station, desk, and a beautiful fireplace with carvings. I watched a little bit of television while I wrote some postcards and read up about the things to do in the area. It was nice to have a separate room to sit and do this while the bloke slept in the other room.

Breakfast each day was held downstairs in a beautiful room with a tiled fireplace, carvings, and a collection of art and stained glass. Our host presented us with several options, such as the traditional Belgian cold meats and cheese with bread, a selection of pastries, yoghurt, fresh fruit, and an option of egg (omelette with salmon/bacon). Fresh juice was on offer, and we started the day each day full and with plenty of energy to sight-see.

The host was very kind and knowledgeable on Bruges and helped us make reservations for dinner at some of the best restaurants in the city. He also told us the best shops to buy chocolate and gave us other tips based on what we wanted to see while we were visiting the city. He was a wealth of knowledge and very helpful to make us feel welcome and get the most out of our time in the area, and we had the most perfect and stress-free experience here.

House of the Sheep (Huis 't Schaep) was perfect for a short break to explore Bruges, and as it's right in the centre, it is perfect for visiting a few shops or sights or heading out for a bite to eat with several really great restaurants around. I did not have a bad meal in Belgium. I would recommend staying here if you're visiting the city. (Note that this post is based on my experience, and I was not asked by the guesthouse to write a review. These views are my own.)

I visited Ghent (a good-sized city in Belgium known for its university) for a little over half a day toward the end of March. I was staying in Bruges, and Ghent is about thirty minutes away by train with a ten-minute tram journey to get to the centre of Bruges, so I had limited time here. This post has photographs of my trip, including some of the places to visit and things to do in Ghent. I had just about enough time to do everything I wanted, but I wouldn't have minded a couple more hours here.

Unfortunately, the weather on the day was overcast. This day was meant to have the best weather, but it ended up with the worst weather in the two and a half days of the trip; there was full sun on the other day and a half that I was in Belgium. I think that Ghent would have looked much better in the sunshine. So, what did I get up to for the four/five hours that I was in Ghent?

St. Michael's Bridge: After arriving by tram in front of St. Nicholas' Church (pictured above), I walked over St. Michael's Bridge. This is a picturesque view over the three towers of Ghent: the church of St. Nicholas, St. Bavo, and the bell tower.

Graslei and Korenlei: These two streets are situated along the canal on both sides of the bank and are a nice walk along to enjoy the historical buildings. These are very old streets with medieval buildings. It's a picturesque area of Ghent. (I think the best view is from the canal.)

Canal Tour: One of the tasks that I wanted to do in Ghent was to do a guided tour on the canal via boat. When I finally arrived along the canals in Ghent and was exporing this beautiful area, there was a boat ready to begin a tour, so I went on the tour. The boat ride lasted 45 minutes. Exploring Ghent, Belgium By Canal Boat

The Castle: Gravensteen Castle (Ghent Castle) is one of the main attractions in Ghent and one of the attractions that I was most looking forward to visiting. I spent a little over an hour exploring the castle, and you can read a lot more about my visit here: A Visit to Gravensteen Castle, Ghent (Belgium Castle of the Counts)

Patershol: This area of Ghent is located to the east of the castle. It is an area of cafes and bars and narrow streets. It is a picturesque area worth a little walk down a couple of the cobblestone streets. If I had had more time, I would have had a drink in one of the bars here as they looked like traditional Belgian bars. I didn't see many horse-drawn carriages like there were in Bruges, but I did see one going up and down the main street in this area. The back streets are much more picturesque.

Kornmarket: The main market square in Ghent is worth a wander with all the shops and picturesque buildings. There are some nice views from the castle leading down and a warehouse along the canal where you can get some food; it looks like an old medieval hall. There are also a couple of bars along the canal here, and I would have liked to have had a drink in one. I could have explored a lot more of this area, but I was rushed.

Souvinirs: Ghent is primarily a working and university city, and it is much larger than Bruges. There are souvenir shops, but there are not as many; I did not see many chocolate shops like I saw in Bruges. Most of the tourist shops sold mass-manufactured items instead of chocolate/lace and other local specialities. Kornmarkt had a couple of speciality shops, and the main squares were a good bet too. I found a wonderful coin and stamp shop and a souvenir shop right outside St. Nicholas' church.

One of the traditional items are the cuberdons; they are hard to describe, but they are similar to but much better than American gumdrops. I'm not a fan of gumdrops, but I loved cuberdons. These were for sale by a street vendor out of a wooden cart, and I was mesmerised by the quaint little cart and the items themselves, but the bloke was angry that I had stopped to look. I wanted to buy a couple here but was rushed away. If you do visit Ghent, I recommend them. I did manage to find some mass-produced ones in Bruges and bought a couple on my last day and had them when I got back to England, and they were delicious. They are melt-in-your-mouth flavoursome jellies. There were a couple shops here that also intrigued me but the bloke was angry at me wanting to look around, so the visit was rushed.

Graffiti Street (Werregarenstraat): This alleyway between two main streets is covered with spray paint. It is colourful, but there's not really any notable street art here. It appears to be sprayed over frequently. It's a good backdrop for photographs, and there were a lot of people on this street doing just that.

Courthouse: Like Bruges, the court house in the main square next to the bell tower can be visited, but it is not open on weekends, so I did not get to visit it. I would have visited it if it had been open because it looks fascinating inside from the photographs I saw in my guide book.

St. Bavos Cathedral: This cathedral can be visited. I did go inside, but I thought that it looks prettier on the outside because it does not have much stained glass as this was destroyed. However, the cathedral is the location of the famous Jan Van Eyck painting "Ghent Altarpiece" ("Adoration of the Mystic Lamb"). I believe that the main square in which the cathedral sits would be a place to hang out in better weather.

Lunch at Poule & Poulette: Poule and Poulette is located on Kornmarkt and serves chicken. We had a very late lunch here before heading back to Bruges. Beer and chicken are on the menu, and I ordered the half of a chicken that was set on fire when it was brought to the table. This chicken was delicious, but then I did not eat a bad meal in Belgium.

Ghent Bell Tower: Before I left Ghent, I visited the bell tower and went to the top to see the views over the city. This did not take very long because there is an elevator/lift most of the way up, and I don't care much for heights, so it was a pretty quick trip for me. The top is open except a very narrow one-person walkway around the tower. You can see photographs and read more about it here: A Climb Up Ghent Bell Tower (Ghent, Belgium).

That covers me visit to Ghent in Belgium, and I hope you enjoyed the photographs of this beautiful city. I just wish that I had had another hour or two here.

At the end of March, I visited the city of Ghent in Belgium for a day trip. We had had perfect weather the previous day in Bruges, and the weather was meant to be even better on this day, but it ended up staying cloudy. The sun makes a world of difference, but at least we did not get rained on during our day trip to Ghent. The first thing we did after we navigated our way to use the trams to get to the centre of Ghent from the station was to do a boat tour. We were down by the picturesque canal anyway, so it made sense to get it out of the way as there was a boat filling up.

The driver of the boat and tour guide had to speak the tour in five different langauges including Flemish, French, German, and English. So, the speaking was done very quickly for each langauge. We were shown the main seafront with the old medieval buildings, many of which are now restaurants. The Kornmarkt has the post office with the clock tower, which apparently was modelled after London's Big Ben. One of the buildings on the seafront is the canal workman's guild, which got rich off tolling the canals. Another building was the granary to store in grain for the population of the city, which thrived during the medieval times. I am sure that the guide mentioned other bits of information about the buildings, but I cannot remember them.

The first bridge is St. Michael's Bridge, with the cathedral of the same name shown here on the right. To the left of the bridge, visitors can get a glimpse of the three towers in a row: the belfry, St. Nicholas' church, and St. Bavo's Cathedral. This is a symbol of Ghent and is carved on St. Michael's Bridge.

Near St. Michael's Bridge is a piece of street art created after the film produced and directed by George Clooney, "The Monument's Men". A painting is featured in the film by Van Eyck called "The Mystic Lamb/Ghent Altarpiece" is used extensively in the film. This painting is located in Ghent. I am sure that I have seen this film, but it did not really stick with me. The best photo I took of the artwork was actually from the bridge and not from the canal with people's heads in my way.

The most attractive part of the canal is along Korenlei and Graslei, which are two roads along the canal just south of the castle and comprised of cobbled stone streets and medieval buildings. 

A little further along, the canal branched and we explored one part before turning around to explore the other part of the canal. Some of the buildings backing onto the canal are pubs and restaurants.

Another impressive and stunning view for us was the castle of Ghent (also known as Gent Gravensteen), positioned along the bank of the canal. 

We passed monastaries, a bridge with some interesting sculptures of Charles V's life, and gallery, and part of the old city walls. Then, we finally came to the end, which was the exit port of Ghent.

This exit of the canal would connect with the sea. That is as far as we could go.

The guide had to be quiet on the way back as we passed through the affluent areas of Ghent because they had complained about the tour boats making too much noise. I suppose that they compromised by giving the discussion on the way down and had to be quiet on the way back.

And on the way back, we were shown the smallest jail cell under one of the bridges.

That concludes the boat tour. The boat tours start from Graslei or Korenlei and last fourty-five minutes. They do cover several languages. The cloudy weather was a pity because Ghent looks much nicer in the sun.