How is the getView() method used and where is it getting called?

I am new to Android development and have been following the tutorials available on the Android website. I am currently on the section of tutorials for Views, specifically the one for Grid Views: Hello, Grid View Tutorial.

I am having trouble understanding how views are made through an adapter. I understand that you must override the getView() method in your adapter class and in this method is where you define how your Views are set up. What I don't understand is where does getView() actually get called? Perhaps I've got the wrong kind of mentality here, but in the code below (the Grid View tutorial) I don't see any calls to getView() (or any other things used in the adapter class such as getCount()).

Main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<GridView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 
    android:id="@+id/gridview"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent" 
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:columnWidth="90dp"
    android:numColumns="auto_fit"
    android:verticalSpacing="10dp"
    android:horizontalSpacing="10dp"
    android:stretchMode="columnWidth"
    android:gravity="center" />

Start.java

package com.examples.hellogridlayout;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.widget.AdapterView;
import android.widget.GridView;
import android.widget.Toast;
import android.widget.AdapterView.OnItemClickListener;

public class Start extends Activity {
/** Called when the activity is first created. */
@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.main);
    GridView gridview = (GridView)findViewById(R.id.gridview);
    gridview.setAdapter(new ImageAdapter(this));

    gridview.setOnItemClickListener(new OnItemClickListener(){
        public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> parent,View v, int position, long     id){
            Toast.makeText(Start.this, "" + position,Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        }

      });
    }
}

ImageAdapter.java

package com.examples.hellogridlayout;

import android.content.Context;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.ViewGroup;
import android.widget.BaseAdapter;
import android.widget.GridView;
import android.widget.ImageView;

public class ImageAdapter extends BaseAdapter {
    private Context mContext;

    public ImageAdapter(Context c) {
        mContext = c;
    }

    public int getCount() {
    return mThumbIds.length;
    }

    public Object getItem(int position) {
    return null;
    }

    public long getItemId(int position) {
        return 0;
    }

    // create a new ImageView for each item referenced by the Adapter
    public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
        ImageView imageView;
        if (convertView == null) {  // if it's not recycled, initialize some attributes
            imageView = new ImageView(mContext);
            imageView.setLayoutParams(new GridView.LayoutParams(85, 85));
            imageView.setScaleType(ImageView.ScaleType.CENTER_CROP);
            imageView.setPadding(8, 8, 8, 8);
        } else {
            imageView = (ImageView) convertView;
        }

        imageView.setImageResource(mThumbIds[position]);
        return imageView;
    }

    // references to our images
    private Integer[] mThumbIds = {
            R.drawable.sample_2, R.drawable.sample_3,
            R.drawable.sample_4, R.drawable.sample_5,
            R.drawable.sample_6, R.drawable.sample_7,
            R.drawable.sample_0, R.drawable.sample_1,
            R.drawable.sample_2, R.drawable.sample_3,
            R.drawable.sample_4, R.drawable.sample_5,
            R.drawable.sample_6, R.drawable.sample_7,
            R.drawable.sample_0, R.drawable.sample_1,
            R.drawable.sample_2, R.drawable.sample_3,
            R.drawable.sample_4, R.drawable.sample_5,
            R.drawable.sample_6, R.drawable.sample_7
    };
}