GHENT

We left our hotel in Bruges after breakfast and made it without incident to the train station, where we purchased tickets to Ghent.  Well and good.  The journey proved easy enough even for novices, and we treated ourselves to a taxi to our hotel, fully expecting to spend two nights there.  Alas, the receptionist informed us, with no appearance of sympathy, that we were booked for only one—and this was but the start of a comedy if errors that has plagued us ever since: we are now on the train to Antwerp, after two hours still on a journey that we were told would take us no more than twenty minutes…  More of that in a minute.

Our hotel room—supposed three star—proved to be, well, let’s be polite and call it basic when we checked in.  Across the street from the castle...

With a few plans in mind, we dumped our bags in the room and set out to explore the town a bit, stopping for a bowl of soup and a glass of beer  at a canal-side pub...

... then crossed the canal and walked past the Berghof—the town hall—to the church...

... that boasts possession of the famous Van Eyck altarpiece, “The Adoration of the Lamb.”  It’s kept in a back chapel, pay per view, in a glass cage that prevents close inspection of the surfaces.  The viewing area was already crowded when we got there, and grew steadily more crowded as we listened to the (rather useful) guided audio tour.  It’s another spectacular ecclesiastical artwork, rather harder to appreciate than the Memling we saw yesterday—perhaps because of the installation that discouraged the kind of intimacy we experienced with the latter.  I happen to think it’s also a lesser painting—less imaginative in image, even less well painted.  Its colors sing less joyously, its aura is less captivating. 

Wandered around the church a bit...

... and found another St. Peter, this time a statue of the saint with his iconic key to heaven’s gate.  Ellie took a picture of the two of us…

We strolled back through the main streets of Ghent...

... pausing briefly for a cup of coffee and a few stray cookies at a tea shop--the large rainbow flag outside announced its proud affiliation—and working our way back up toward familiar territory around the hotel.  The Design Museum is located right next to the hotel, so we took advantage of the proximity and spent a good hour or two exploring what it had to offer.  A good amount of material, it turned out—very little of it American. 

We were disappointed to find many of our favorites unrepresented, but there was enough of quality, certainly, to engage eye and mind.  We were particularly enchanted by the tiny toys we found everywhere, in display cases alongside the exhibits—a game for children to follow and identify, each little piece a thematic commentary on the piece displayed.  Here's one hanging, almost undetectable, around the middle of this disk...

A nice touch.

Evening took us out in search of restaurants.  We found one particularly appealing pizza place—but it was all sold out.  As were numerous other restaurants, this Friday evening.  We discovered, finally, one small, out-of-the-way bistro, where we enjoyed a pleasant meal and a glass of wine.  Back at the hotel, Ellie discovered that the water in the bathroom was tepid at best—a condition that did not improve in time for our morning shower.  We caught up with the Daily Show on the computer before bed, along with a couple of news shows.  Saw Obama and Romney both perform their comedy act at the annual New York Catholic charity dinner (name?) and found Obama funny, self-deprecating; while Romney spent a good deal mote time deprecating Obama…

There's more about Ghent tomorrow.  And I mustn’t forget to catch you up on the Ghent to Antwerp train drama, as promised.  Later…  I’ll likely post this first, if we have a wi-fi connection at our Antwerp hotel.