luxemblog: Gettin' it to Ghent

On our way home from Bruges we stopped in Ghent. We had heard that it was a really nice city from someone we met in Luxembourg and it was only 30 minutes from Bruges. Wow, what a nice city. Kinda dirty and gritty, but really pretty and chock full of beautiful architecture and a lively student population. Our first stop was this cathedral where there was a huge Jan Van Eyck (sp?) set of panel paintings called "the Adoration of the Lamb" or something like that. Jan was one of the Flemish Primitives who were known for realism and vibrant colors. Before we saw the actual paintings we stopped to marvel at the Cathedral itself and some of the portraits of the bishops. I never knew that a cathedral was a cathedral because a bishop was "stationed" there. i just thought cathedrals were really big churches with great acoustics for their huge organs and choirs. I didn't know it had anything to do with a bishop. i just assumed bishops like to be in big churches because of the prestige, acoustics, etc. As long as there's a bishop, it's a cathedral, no matter what size the structure is. Anyway, it's been very handy to have a catholic-raised husband while traveling because he clears this stuff up for me

Some portraits. Interesting to see how the painting styles changed through the years. We imagined which men were nice bishops, which ones were mean, corrupt, etc.

The Van Eyck panels/paintings. After this photo I accidentally took another one with teh FLASH ON - which is totally prohibited. i ran and hid behind the panels hoping the attendant wouldn't see me and i wouldn't get into trouble–I didn't, but i felt like such a jerk. Dave said i probably took a year off the life of the painting. Thanks, Dave.