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Ghent's Quay |
Time to travel to Amsterdam, but our first stop was the town
of Ghent, 250K of people and another 60,000 students. Ghent was the center of
the wool trade in the middle ages. It also had
a vigorous grain trade and the taxes from this trade made Ghent very rich.
We toured the ancient port area. The guild halls were spectacular, the meat
hall and the cloth hall underneath the belfry. We also saw the painting “Adoration of the Mystic Lamb". It was one of the first to use shadows to emphasize the curls
of cloth on the figures and use depth in the backgrounds. Painted by two
brothers, started by one and finished by the other, we find the transition in
the painting.
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Adoration of the Mystic Lamb |
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The Old Church Delft |
We continued on to the town of Delft. We walked the center
of the city: the merchant house, the old church and new church, built between
the 15th and 17th century. Of course we also visited a
delft pottery workshop, one of only three left. The simple vase we saw was hand
painted and takes 8 days to make because of the multiple firings.
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Making of a vase from right to left |
We arrived in
Amsterdam just in time for dinner. After dinner we headed to the red light district around one
of the churches. It was still quiet, so we stopped for a Guiness at an Irish
pub. After our beer, the window shades started opening and the women were on
display.
We've known for days that we wouldn't be meeting our ship. A
Viking ship hit the doors of one of the locks on the Danube. It is under repair
and our ship is on the other side. We know we will be using buses and hotels
for at least 3 days and possibly up to 7 days, depending when our ship can get
through the lock.
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