How many ways can you say chocolate? Ask Belgium.

Beautiful Belgium canals

Belgium.  A small country with a big chocolate taste and some absolutely fabulous architecture.  But lets start with a little quiz....   If I say Ghent Altarpiece, does anything come to mind?   I will tie in yesterday's trip to Cherbourg, France with today's commentary by telling you a little bit about the history of the Altarpiece.   It is considered the most stolen artwork of all time.  Napoleon stole it, the Calvinists almost burned it and Nazi Germany was desperate to get it.  Adolf Hitler, in his book Mein Kampf, described how he had always wanted to be a professional artist.  There are paintings around today that he himself painted.   Oh how the history books would read differently today had he only made it into the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna.  But he failed his entrance exam and thus a much crueler fate lay in store for the world.

St. Bavo's Cathedral - home of the Ghent Altarpiece

The Ghent Altarpiece is a 15th century polyptych masterpiece by the brothers Hubert and Jan Van Eych.  It was started in the mid 1420's and was finished in 1432.   It is a series of 12 panels basically depicting the story of Christianity from A to Z.  Like I said, it has been stolen many times and one of the 12 panels has been missing for the last 80 years.  Read about this or watch it in the movie The Monument Men.  It is a great read.  Needless to say it was quite an honor to get to see the masterpiece in St. Bavo's Cathedral in Ghent while we were there.   There was no photography allowed in the Cathedral, but here is one we borrowed.

The storied Ghent Altarpiece also called "The Mystic Lamb"

Next we were all invited to L. Van Hoorebeke Chocolaterie.  This is a small family owned and operated chocolate shop with all handmade delights.  They showed us how they create so many different types, tastes, shapes and flavors of chocolates.   It all starts in big bricks of chocolate that come from the factories.   Each brick is made to order in terms of how much sugar or how much cocoa is used so that they can then melt it down and create their own masterpieces.    It was incredible be see how fast they can go as they pour the melted chocolate into molds, let it cool for a certain time, create artwork on top of or around or inside each piece that pops out from the pan it was molded into.   Of course we didn't believe it was real and so we demanded sample after sample to be sure the quality produced was up to standard.   By the look of things, this was a favorite stop today as the line to purchase the finished goods was quite long.

We then had a little time to explore on our own and Vialula and I wandered around taking in some fabulous old buildings which have stood the test of time.  We found an interesting alleyway where the residents of Ghent have basically taken over and have covered the walls of the building in the narrow spaces with their own forms of graffati.  It has become so popular that people come from all around the world to display their own works.   You are supposed to respect the work of others but you can see that it has lead to many layers of paint, one over another as mural after mural goes up on the walls.

It started to rain a little as our group met back up to again board the bus that would take us back to Zeebrugge and our ship.   It didn't spoil the day at all.  We both decided that we would like to come back here one day.   There is much to see and we were only in one small town.  Like most of the places we have been, Belgium has that small town, European feel to it.  The histories here go back so much further than we know at home.   You can't throw a rock without hitting something hundreds if not thousands of years old. 

Next stop is Amsterdam.  It is a big day for the Amsterdam to be coming into her namesake.   We hope to have some good adventures to share with you tomorrow so keep reading.  Thanks to all and be kind to each other.

LeRoy at
Castle Gravensteen