Ghent

Ghent began as a settlement where the Scheldt meets the Leie, and grew into one of the largest and richest cities of northern Europe, around fifty thousand people by 1300, on the strength of cloth. It is the capital of East Flanders and the third largest city in Belgium, a port and a university city both. The medieval waterfront still carries the guild houses that trade paid for. Because the student population keeps it working rather than preserved, Ghent feels less like a museum than its neighbours, and the quays along the Leie are busiest on summer evenings.