Day 2: Ashford to Ghent

A superb morning – sun shine, scarcely a cloud, light dew. Up early, packed and in Dover for 9.15 am A farmer had been out early with his cows and the road was covered with ‘cowsh’ which splattered all up the front of the clean van. It was wonderful dropping down into Dover with the calm silver sea, not a breath of wind and the sun shining. All the planning paid off; the route from Calais to Ghent was a pleasure to drive though a bit busy around Ghent itself. This site – Groenpark – is ideal; trees separating pitches into sections, and plenty of green grass.


I toyed with going into Ghent this afternoon but rejected it in favour of relaxing with a glass or two of Leffe in a proper Leffe glass lent to me by the owner of the campsite. Now that is what you call civilised. Ghent can wait till tomorrow.

Why Ghent? Apart from the fact that it’s on the route I want to go on it contains a painting. In fact it contains many paintings one of which I visited with GH a few years ago: The Ghent Altarpiece or Adoration of the Mystic Lamb by Hubert and Jan van Eyck. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghent_Altarpiece)

The other painting which I wanted to track down was one I first saw in 1962 on a school trip. Aged 9 at the time this painting is the only thing I recall; it made a real impression. It turns out that it’s not in Ghent at all, but now in the Groenige museum in Bruges. I think it may have been in the Town Hall where the courts are as a reminder to the magistrates to do their job fairly. Unfortunately it is not on view at the moment because the gallery is preparing for an exhibition starting in the future. The painting is The Judgement of Cambyses by Gerard David. (1460-1523). It’s worth a look.

The story of this painting starts with the Greek historian, Herodotus. He tells the story of a corrupt Persian judge, Sisamnes, who accepted bribes that affected his decisions in court. The king, Cambyses II (reigned 529-522 B.C.), son of Cyrus the Great, had a way of dealing with corrupt judges. In a nutshell King Cambyses had his throat slit and then flayed off all his skin, and he covered the chair on which Sisamnes had used to sit to deliver his verdicts with his skin. You can read the whole story here. (http://www.harris-greenwell.com/HGS/FlayingFalseJustice) Sisamnes is definitely not happy in this painting. May have been having second thoughts about the wisdom of his actions.

Perhaps there is something we can learn from this story and apply today. It is a gruesome tale and may have had a formative influence on my wilder thoughts about how to punish offenders of all sorts effectively! But that’s another story.

Statistics:

Countries passed through today: three. England, France and Belgium.

Miles done so far: 280