Is the fastest way to get by train from Ghent to Amsterdam, a train from Brussels? if so, which one? And is it cheaper to book beforehand online? Is it that much faster than a train from Ghent to Amsterdam, if such there is. (Excuse my ignorance of Europe's trains.) And while I'm asking, how long is the train from Brussels to Ghent and which train runs take back and forth?

By the way, is it spelled Ghent or Gent? I've seen in both ways.

Here is the website for Belgian Railways:
http://www.b-rail.be/main/E/

Another excellent site for all sorts of information on travelling by train in Europe is:
www.seat61.com

Ghent to Brussels is about 30 mins by train. You will see the name spelt at least 3 different ways (Flemish, English, French) : Ghent, Gent and Gand. The train station closest to the town is Gent St Pieters (Peters or Pierre). When we visited Ghent, the train to Brussels went about every half an hour, it may run more often in peak hour. No need to prebook this train.

In case you are interested, Brugge (or Bruges) is about an hour by train from Brussels. They are all beautiful cities.

Kay

From Brussels or Antwerp you can get the Thalys, which is fast (after December 13th) but requires prebooking - see www.Thalys.com, or you can get an intercity train which is slower, may be cheaper and doesn't require prebooking.
It may make more sense to get the train from Gent to Antwerp and get a train from there to Amsterdam

Thanks all. I just spent (wasted) more than an hour trying, unsuccessfully, to buy a ticket on the Thalys from Brussels to Amsterdam on Dec. 19 and back on the 23. I've bought lots of tickets and other things online in Europe and never had this problem. Any suggestions as to why I'm having so much trouble. It's frustrating, to say the least.

The English, as every properly educated schoolboy knows, is Ghent. Any other spelling in English demonstrates illiteracy, and shameful ignorance of our literature - especially of Robert Browning's poems.

The spelling's different if you're writing in French or Dutch. But you're not.

Happyfella,

Don't go from Ghent to Brussels to catch a Thalys train. It will be faster to take an IC train to Antwerp and connect there with a Thalys train to Amsterdam.

For timetables go to www.bahn.de and click on the drop-down flag menu for English. After you get summary timetables for Gent St Pieters - Amsterdam, click on the arrow to the left of each departure time to see the connecting points.

To book Antwerp-Amsterdam on thalys.com, choose English and Belgium. Choose to pick up your ticket in Belgium and click on "Paper ticket." (The ticketless option is only for people with European cell phones.)