Friday - Must be Gent!

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Friday - May 8, 2009
The forecast was in the low 50's, wind and rain - so we thought we would take the train to Gent. Feeling very much like locals, we headed to the bus stop to catch the local bus to the train station. A very nice REAL LOCAL finally stopped and told us that there was a BUS STRIKE today - actually "today and tomorrow"! So we headed back to the house and decided to ride our bikes to the train station! The train to Gent only took about 30 minutes - and then we discovered that the town of Gent was a good 30 minute walk from the train station (No buses running in Gent either). We decided to catch a cab - and had him drop us off at Sint-Baafskathedral, where there is a great showing of the Van Eyck brother's paintings.

It is called "The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb", it is a multi-paneled painting - 12 panels. We listened to the audio description of the each panel and the detail of each panel is quite extraordinary! It was finished in 1432, it had to be rescued twice, one from thieves and once from a fire.

The St. Baafskathedraal was very beautiful - and a candle was lite for my loved ones!

Jean was THRILLED that I found a quilt shop - called Quilthuys and even found some European quilting fabric. I am surprised at the fabrics that they carried from the US. A cute shop!

Gent has a Belfort also (rises 299 feet) and has a guilded copper dragon at the top.

We made our way back to the train station, and jumped on the first train that said Brugge - felt like the school bus route home, stopping at EVERY small community on way back. Was a fun day!

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