Sissinghurst Castle

For our first home and garden visit, we drove to Sissinghurst, just a short distance from Ashford, the home and garden of Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson. The estate began as a Saxon pig farm (origin of the expression "Saxon pigs!"), but by the 16th century had a large Renaissance house, 38 fireplaces and a 120 foot long hall. The next few centuries were rough, however, the estate serving as a POW camp for French sailors in the Seven Years War (the French and Indian Wars to us Yanks) (known to the prisoners as Chateau Sissinghurst and thus Sissinghurst Castle) and even a poor house. When Sackville-West and Nicolson took over, it was a ruin. Now it is one of hundreds of jewels in the National Trust crown. Vicki was hissing "Sackville-Bagginses!" as we toured, but this was (as she knows) the Sackville-West of Bloomsbury and Virginia Wolff fame.

The Elizabethan tower at Sissinghurst

Sackville-West's study was in the tower; playing was a
recording of her reading her poem "Sissinghurst"

She collected glass, among other things

Part of the estate, from the tower; note the white Kent hops
hoods on a distant barn; for drying hops; for making beer

And a view of part of the gardens; Harold was a straight-line
classicist, she a Romantic; they often clashed over the
gardens' designs

Not the first, and not the last Wisteria
you'll see from us; Vicki loves them

Azaleas in bloom all over...but nothing compared to the
rhododendron riot we'll see in a few more days

Poppies

Irises

And others; it is really earlier spring here; Europe has had
a dreadful long winter and short spring; the good news for
us is that we haven't really missed anything!

One end of the library; they were both literary types, and
this room contained nearly 5,000 books; is someone out
there thinking about the effect of e-books on great house
architecture?

Vita Sackville-West; portrait in the library

A Passage To Freedonia, And In English Too

Actually our last cultural outing on the Continent was on June 3, the morning, at the Auchon super-duper-hyper-mercado in Dunkirk, where we had driven on Sunday, stocking up on some of the French things that would be gone or dear on the next leg of our trip. Wines, cheeses, coffee, UHT cream, sweets and stuff. Particularly wine. Anyhow, we camped the previous evening outside the Auchon (with permission, even), mooching free wifi off the adjoining Flunch restaurant. Later in the day on the 3rd we would ferry to the UK and spend 90 days there, as required by the Schengen Agreement. According to the Agreement, mere tourists from the US can spend only 90 days in the Schengen countries ("Schengenia": most all of the EU, except the UK: "Freedonia"), before having to get out for 90 days. So we will be 90 days in the UK. We did this before, in 2009, and discovered that 90 days was not nearly enough of that wonderful place. And in English too. Sort of. I spent the night of June 2 trying to visualize everything on the left-hand side. I have done this before, several times. It is still terrifying, especially in a LHD vehicle. The UK would be just about perfect, except for the weather, the food, and driving on the "proper" side. And the roads. Don't forget the roads.

Our vessel, the Dover Seaways, Dunkirk to Dover, two hours 

Goodbye, France, goodbye, Continent; see you September 3rd

"White cliffs of Dover?"

Dover Castle above the ferry port

We missed the turn to Dover, as we often do, and wound up
driving the 10 or so miles to Canterbury, which has the most
marvelous camper-stop at its New Dover Road Park and Ride;
room for 20 or so vehicles, water and dump facilities; free
transportation (ten minutes, every ten minutes) to and from
the city; 3 pounds a night ($4.50); we thought we were still
in camper-friendly France; but then a veteran camper told us
what is doubtlessly true, that Canterbury's camper-stop is the
only thing of its kind on the Island

So we spent three nights there, resting, re-acquainting ourselves
with Marks and Spencer's and Tesco, and Oxfam, buying
dongles so we wouldn't have to mooch wifi anymore (for 90
days), studying our guide books, reading, re-provisioning, and
thinking "left"

We'd toured the famous cathedral several
times before, including 2009, so this time we
contented ourselves with attending the
Wednesday Evensong; I studied the
architecture and read the Anglican Articles
of Religion (with letters from Charles I and
Elizabeth I), getting myself back into the
the rhetoric and spirit of the English
protestant reforms; some very strong
language against the "Romish" types

Who still maintain an outpost in this Vatican
of Anglicanism

The next two nights we spent in an idyllic campsite in nearby
Ashford, having the Grey Wanderer's brake pads replaced
and sundry other work done

Well, actually it was in the carpark of the "industrial estate"
where the Mercedes dealership was located; but it was
quiet and afforded yet more rest and preparation for embarking
on our UK tour

More Ghent Art

Next day, Sunday, June 2, we visited Ghent's Museum of Fine Arts (Museum voor Schone Kunsten) for what would be our final cultural outing on the Continent for a while. It is a primarily regional collection, mostly Belgian, 14th century to the present, with much emphasis on modern work. But some major oldies too.

Bosch's Christ Carrying the Cross is one of his last works; he died in 1516, and,
apparently sensing trouble with the religious authorities, ordered his unfinished
works destroyed; there is nothing else quite like this painting I know of, from
either the northern or Italian Renaissance

Christ's image on the Veil of Veronica; there's Veronica holding the veil...

Tormenters...

And another Bosch, his Holy Jerome; with all his attributes,
including the kitty-cat lion; c. 1500

Moving right along, the Younger Breughel's Village Lawyer; like any Breughel,
it rewards close study; it was very popular in its time, later 1500s...he made
some 70 copies

Younger's copy of Elder Breughels' Peasant Dance

Ditto the Peasant Wedding, last seen in Munich

Very large Last Judgment, by Rafael Conche, 1589

Lurid detail; with mirror warning...this could be you!

Henry Lays' Albrecht Durer Visiting Antwerp in 1520

Up closer detail; and there he is

Alfred Stevens' 1887 Mary Magdalene; most
unusual Magdalene so far

Magritte's Manet's Balcony (1950); I could like this guy

And finally, thinking of our 2-year-old grand-daughter, who is moving, we are
told,  beyond her Pointillist phase: Jan Hans Verhas' The Master Painter, 1877

Adoration Of The Mystic Lamb: the Ghent Altarpiece, 2013

Ghent has a great old cathedral, St. Bavo's, dating from 942,
the present building beginning as Romanesque, later Gothic,
14th century and later still, some Baroque interior after the
rebellion against Charles V...

Nave view

Some glass, not particularly old nor
noteworthy

And a crypt that is old, large, accessible, and particularly noteworthy for its frescoes
and Romanesque features

What St. Bavo's is known for, however, is the so-called "Ghent Altarpiece," properly
known as the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, by Hubert and Jan van Eyck; Hubert
was allegedly Jan's brother, the only mention of whom anywhere is on the dedication
of this painting; I have my own theory of who Hubert van Eyck was and think it
simpler and more fitting to think of it just as Jan's work; it is his masterpiece, and of
a piece with many other paintings of his that have survived; it was finished and
presented in 1432, one of the first large oil paintings; as a polyptych, it is of course
many large oil paintings

The center panel; this is a photo of a large copy in one of the cathedral's side chapels

Up closer, off the web, just the central panel; rancid with Medieval symbolism

With all their varying light, cathedrals are really not very
good places for displaying great art, even copies; but notice
the expressions on these women's faces, the detail and
emotion...1432, folks...compare with what Giotto and friends
were doing about this time...no comparison!

Saints, martyrs, the usual suspects...

Back outside the copy chapel, in the nave, here are a clothed Adam and Eve,
two of the wing panels; some centuries after van Eyck, it was decided that nude
figures were inappropriate, so they were clothed; and here they are

And now we are in the special display room, off the narthex, where the real
Adoration of the Mystic Lamb is displayed; no fotos, of course; but I couldn't
resist; this is possibly my favorite painting

Even in the special room, behind a wall of
bullet-proof glass, and a metal detector, the
lighting is not wonderful; but it is no less
impressive

Meanwhile, back in Heaven, above; Mary and John interceding

Pilgrims

Stigmata rays bouncing all around; note the background landscape/cityscape;
also the greenery and flowery detail...

And, for one brief shining (but not flashing) moment, no one
between me and the Lamb of God

Next day, out at Ghent's Museum of Fine Arts, mostly for the Breughels and Bosch,
we also peeked in at the ongoing restoration of the various panels of the Mystic Lamb

Of course, like all triptych and polyptych altar pieces, the Adoration is fully 
painted on both sides of the folding panels ...often the back-side is just as 
interesting as the front...glorious stuff...especially from Van Eyck, 
generations before the High Renaissance in the south...