Ghent buskers

On a murky, misty day we took the train from Brussels to Ghent to see the Van Eyck brothers' astonishing polyptic 'The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb'. Sadly they don't let you photograph it - but then, why would they? It's one of the most important, and certainly one of the most beautiful paintings in the entire history of Western art, and I would imagine that the reproduction rights must make Saint Bavo's Cathedral an absolute fortune. Crammed with a dozen other people into the small chapel where they keep it protected behind a wall of glass, and struggling to find the right numbers on the audio guide in near darkness, I nevertheless found the experience of gazing at it profoundly moving.

There is also a good design museum in Ghent - and by "good" I mean that it has an impressive collection of Arts & Crafts and Art Nouveau, as well as the usual array of battered objets quotidiens. It's housed in an C18th mansion, and it amused me to catch a pic of the buskers sitting outside, with the canal behind them, through the wobbly old window.