Elise Van den Broeck

Ghent is the city I chose, not the one I was born in, which was a village near Aalst with one bakery and three churches. I came here to study architecture and stayed for the people, the bikes and the fact that nobody here pays much attention to Bruges. For six years I worked as a lighting designer on the city's night lighting plan, so yes, I will take you out after dark and tell you why the Graslei glows the way it does. I also cook, mostly vegetarian, because Ghent has had a meat-free Thursday in its schools since 2009 and it rubbed off on me. I speak Dutch, English, French and Spanish. My tours are short on dates and long on stories about the people who built and lived in the places we see. My sessions now run live on video from Ghent: I carry the phone, you watch from wherever you are and ask anything.