6 Best Sights in Ghent and the Leie, Belgium

Surrounded by a moat, the Castle of the Counts of Flanders resembles an enormous battleship steaming down the sedate Lieve Canal. From its windswept battlements there's a splendid view over the rooftops of old Ghent. Today's brooding castle has little in common with the original fortress, which was built to discourage marauding Norsemen. Its purpose, too, changed from protection to oppression as the conflict deepened between feudal lords and unruly townspeople. At various times the castle has also been used as a mint, a prison, and a cotton mill.

The museum itself comprises several settings, with its interior largely devoted to everyday 20th-century household items lovingly preserved. The courtyard features 18 medieval almshouses surrounding a garden, reconstructed to offer an idea of life here 100 years ago. The visitors' route takes you from the houses to the chapel and out through the crypt. Children are often drawn to the giant pageant figures, board games, and frequent shows in the beamed-and-brick puppet theater, where the star is "Pierke," the traditional Gent puppet. Tickets to shows can be bought at Uitbureau.

These charming heritage trains (both steam and diesel) only run in the summer, between July and September. The oldest (Cockerill 2643) dates back to 1907, though the steamers mostly come from the early 20th century. Its journey from Baasrode-Noord, a few miles east of Dendermonde, to the small village of Puurs takes you through countryside wrapped by the Scheldt. There is room for bicycles, so if you only want to travel one-way and cycle the 17 km (10½ miles) back alongside the river to Dendermonde, you can. For €200, you can even be the "stoker" of the train for a day and ride upfront. 

This kid-friendly natural-history museum exhibits cover geology, the evolution of life, human biology and reproduction, and a diorama room of indigenous birds. There is also a garden site a short bus ride from Sint-Pietersplein (No. 5; get off at Tolhuislaan) with more than 1,000 plant species, a bee colony, and live tarantulas.

What do you do when you have a scientific collection so sprawling and disparate that there's no coherent way to display it? This new museum offers an ingenious solution: simply look into how such things are investigated. Sections touch upon "classification," "doubt," "measurement," and other scientific conundrums, explored via formaldehyde-preserved animals, fossils, zoetropes, ancient sites, and even sex surveys. 

Based in the adjoining village of Ename (a 10-minute bus ride from the center), this interactive museum narrates the last 1,000 years of history in the region. Its sites sprawl a village that once stood on the border between medieval France and Germany. Visits include the open-air museum of the archaeological park, where you'll find the first stone inklings of a Benedictine abbey and the foundations of the old city that once stood here.