But this was not difficult. An Qingju and An Chuyu found the tourist service center on the GPS, and they would definitely find the answer there. An Qingju and An Chuyu groped their way through the canal, following the road signs with the word ER, which could be seen on every major street corner, and the instructions were in English.

Sure enough, An Qingjue and An Chuyu saw the visitor center opposite an ancient castle and went forward to inquire about the location of the altar painting.

An Qingjue and An Chuyu didn't even know how to say the altarpiece in English accurately, they just knew it was altarpiece. But it didn't matter, the staff knew that An Qingjue and An Chuyu wanted to see the altarpiece, and quickly took out a map and marked the location for An Qingjue and An Chuyu. Following the instructions, An Qingjue and An Chuyu came to Saint Baaf's Church (Saint Baafska thedraal).

The church is very tall, but I don't know what it looks like because it is covered with scaffolding for repairs. From the outside, the tower looks to be 80 or 90 meters high; of course, it is not difficult to imagine that it must be a Gothic building.

It is free to enter the church. This church, which was built in the 12th century, has a lot of history. There are also paintings by Rubens in it. The church also has an underground altar, which displays many bishops' costumes. There are graves of dead monks, bishops and so on on the ground in the basement.

There is not much space inside, and only this altar painting is on display. Audio guides are provided, but there is no Chinese version. An Qingju and An Chuyu had to make do with the English version. Photography is not allowed inside, so I found the image of this altar painting on the Internet.

This altarpiece is actually a large work consisting of 12 panels and 20 paintings. The front is the left side of the picture above, and there are 8 more paintings on the back, which are the right side of the picture.

Obviously, this is a religious theme, so I won't go into details here. If you want to know the content of the painting, you can search on Baidu. What is more attractive is the color of the picture. It is very bright. It is not the content of the picture, but the painting technology and skills that make this set of altar paintings a milestone work in Western painting.

It is a well-known name, and I guess everyone who studies art knows it. The artists of this altarpiece are the great Van Eyck brothers, who are considered the originators of oil painting. Before them, Western paintings were generally tempera (adding egg yolk to the pigment as a coloring medium) or fresco (painting on plaster with pigments mixed with water), but both had the problem that the pigments would dry very quickly.

It is said that the Van Eyck brothers created their own unique oil as a pigment medium, which made the colors of the paintings bright and brilliant. After hundreds of years, the paintings are still as good as they were when they were first created, and the pigments dried at just the right time. This is how An Qingju and An Chuyu called "oil painting" today.

It is so famous that you should take a closer look. It is indeed very beautiful. The Van Eyck brothers were influenced by the Persian miniature painting technique and painted it very carefully, wanting to capture every hair. No wonder it took almost 20 years to paint. The elder brother died in the tenth year. The younger brother continued to paint until it was completed.

Later, An Qingju and An Chuyu also saw his brother Jan van Eyck's "Madonna of Lorraine" (ellorrolin) in the Louvre, but that's another story.

After returning from Ghent, An Qingju and An Chuyu passed through Brussels and headed towards their residence. Originally, the GPS suggested that An Chuyu and his friends go around Brussels, and the two thought about sightseeing in the car, but they encountered a traffic jam.

It was raining heavily in Brussels. All the tunnels in the city were closed. Everyone was crowded on the ground. The traffic jam was as bad as that in Beijing. The slightly better thing was that no one cut in and honked their horns. Everyone was queuing slowly and moving with difficulty in the rain. An Qingju and An Chuyu, who were illiterate and didn't know the way, slowly looked at the road signs and searched the map to cross Brussels.

An Qingju and An Chuyu's residence is in the suburbs of Brussels, between a large forest, with a very beautiful view. Following the GPS instructions, we quickly found An Qingju and An Chuyu's house, which was also very beautiful. But when we knocked on the door, no one opened it. We only heard the dog barking inside.

I found the hostess' phone number and called her. It turned out that the hostess had called An Qingju several times, saying that she couldn't wait for An Qingju and An Chuyu because she had something urgent to do today. In the end, An Qingju didn't answer any of them. The hostess told An Qingju and An Chuyu on the phone that she left a key on the back door, and they could just turn it and enter the room.

An Qingjue and An Chuyu followed their instructions, and it worked! It turned out that An Qingjue and An Chuyu's room had a completely independent entrance from the yard, and they didn't need to go through the host's house. In addition to the host, this house only received An Qingjue and An Chuyu as guests.

The part where An Qingju and An Chuyu lived was a two-story structure. The first floor was a large living room connected to the dining room, and there was also a separate bathroom; the second floor was the bedroom. The room was fully equipped, with an unlimited supply of cola, beer, and both carbonated and non-carbonated mineral water in the refrigerator, and a coffee machine in the dining room that could make coffee of various flavors.

The owner has a big golden retriever. When An Qingjue and An Chuyu come in, it always barks twice. When An Qingjue and An Chuyu go out, it sits behind the floor-to-ceiling glass and looks at An Qingjue and An Chuyu flatteringly without saying a word.

The traffic jam made both of them feel a little tired, so it was best to find a casual and comfortable restaurant to eat. The hostess was obviously very thoughtful and had left the business cards of several nearby restaurants on the desk in the room. An Qingju and An Chuyu compared them and chose an Italian restaurant, which only required a 600-700-meter walk to get there.

The timing was just right. When An Qingjue and An Chu met there, they had just started serving dinner. Italian food is not as sophisticated as French food, and it is also very casual to eat. But An Chuyu said that the pasta in this restaurant is very good! It mainly sells seafood pasta, all kinds of seafood, all kinds of pasta. Of course, there are steaks, which are also good.

After eating, we decided to eat at this restaurant again tomorrow. We should learn from our experience in Beaune and stay at this restaurant if we find one that we like!

At around nine in the evening, I met the hostess Stephanie who had returned home. She was very friendly and stylish. We agreed to have breakfast at nine the next morning.

At 9 o'clock in the morning, the hostess Stephanie brought An Qingju and An Chuyu breakfast. I had thought that they were just guests of An Qingju and An Chuyu. Could it be that they had to eat with the host?

She had thought of this long ago and had quickly brought breakfast to An Qingjue and An Chuyu's dining room on various trays, telling them to just leave the breakfast there after they were done eating and she would clean it up when they went out - how thoughtful!

The breakfast was really great, with all kinds of jams, cheeses and French bacon placed on double-layer trays, as well as a wide variety of breads, cakes and yogurts. Stephanie was also very artistic, with flowers decorating the plates, and all kinds of handmade candles in the room... It was great.

An Qingjue and An Chuyu had a clear plan for today, which was to go see Ding Ding! But they found a little interesting thing. When An Qingjue and An Chuyu said in, she didn't understand. After An Qingjue explained who it was, she suddenly understood. "Oh! You say Dan Dan!"

It turns out that the Dutch (and later I learned that the French) pronounce it as "Dan Dan". No wonder the "Travel Around" said it was the "Dan Dan Museum".

I guess every Chinese person knows Tintin. Even if they are not familiar with him, they have heard of him. Even if they are not familiar with Tintin, they probably know the Smurfs? They are not from Disney, but from Belgium.

In fact, Belgium is a veritable "kingdom of comics". According to the calculation of practitioners, it is said that one out of every three cartoonists in the world is Belgian. For Chinese tourists, what are the symbols of Belgium? An Chuyu thinks about it. Belgian chocolate, the peeing mannequin, the great detective Paul, and Tintin and the Smurfs?

Belgians also know the status of their cartoons in the world, so there is a special "Cartoon Walking Route" in Brussels, which is 3 kilometers long. There are more than a dozen cartoon walls along the way as guides, all of which are full of lifelike cartoon characters, appearing on street corners and shop walls in a particularly strange and casual way.

Even if you are not that crazy about it, those who go straight to Tintin like An Qingjue and An Chuyu will definitely return with satisfaction. Now let's talk about An Qingjue and An Chuyu's Tintin journey.

In fact, you can find Tintin stores on the commercial streets of Brussels. An Qingju and An Chuyu once met a tourist who said that the so-called "Tintin Museum" they had visited was actually just a Tintin store. Of course, you can find Tintin everywhere. If you are a Tintin fan like An Qingju and An Chuyu, these two places are the right place.

The first is the Hergé Museum (Musee Herge), which is located in the suburbs of Brussels and was opened in 2007. This museum only introduces Hergé and Tintin.

There is no mistake in the poem, post, content, and read the book on 6, 9, and bar!

An Qingju and An Chuyu planned their day's itinerary like this: First, they went to the Hergé Museum to see Tintin, and then went to the downtown comics museum; while they were in the downtown, they also visited the city center of Brussels - from the map, the city center of Brussels was a place that could be walked around in two hours.

The Hergé Museum opens at 10:30 in the morning, so An Qingju and An Chuyu have plenty of time to have a full breakfast, check directions, and find a place to park.

As mentioned before, the museum is in the suburbs, which actually looks like a residential + commercial area next to a forest. After An Qingju and An Chuyu's car drove around in a dizzy way, it stopped in the underground garage of the residential area. It was easy to climb to the ground, and they saw the Hergé Museum at a glance.

This museum also provides audio guides, which are also only in English. There are many exhibition halls inside, and these parts are roughly introduced.

Hergé's life - introduces Hergé's life, how he got into creation, etc.; the origin and development process of Tintin's creation; the main partners around Tintin, and the real-life prototypes of each partner; the real scenes and real people that appear in Tintin comics; the original drawings of various Tintin comics, and its creation process.

It is a pity that taking photos in the Hergé Museum is not allowed in the exhibition hall except in the lobby. The photos of An Qingju and An Chuyu can only be taken here.

But it is really beautiful inside, and it takes two hours to visit it. There are traces of Tintin in every corner of the museum, such as the silhouettes of Tintin and the captain on the entrance, Snow White leading the way to the emergency exit, and even Tintin looking at you in surprise in the mirror in the elevator.

This is even more true in the exhibition hall, where portraits of the Tintin family are projected in the lights, hand-painted Tintin family portraits are at the corners of the stairs, and each light leaf on the chandelier is a Tintin mission... For Tintin fans, visiting here is like immersing yourself in the world of Tintin.

This immersive feeling is not as exaggerated as in Disneyland. The design of the museum is a typical European style, very subtle, and the cartoon characters also reveal so much spirituality and cultural heritage, as if they are alive, quietly following you throughout the entire visit.

What impressed An Qingju and An Chuyu the most was a diagram of the appearance and changes of Tintin comic characters. This diagram can be found in the Hergé Museum and also in the Belgian Comic Museum behind. An Qingju and An Chuyu were lucky enough to take a photo of it.

The overall coordinates of this map are the characters in The Adventures of Tintin from top to bottom, with their names marked in Dutch, French and English respectively. The horizontal axis from left to right is the year and comic book in which the character first appeared, as well as his, her or its image in this comic book.

Anyone familiar with serialized comics knows that the cartoonist's drawing proficiency and style will gradually change with the serialization time, and the drawing techniques of later comics are often more vivid and lively - that is the result of continuous accumulation and interaction and adjustment with the audience.

Therefore, when a best-selling comic is reprinted later, sometimes the cartoonist will redraw the previous content according to the style of the later one. This is the case with "The Adventures of Tintin". So this picture not only tells the appearance of each character of An Qingju and An Chuyu, but also shows their image in each year. (To be continued...)