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Just 25 minutes from Brussels, the historic city of Leuven is known for making the Stella Artois.
But the city is much more than that: full of historic gems, sublime boutiques filled with flowing silk shirts, and more restaurants than you can eat in a week.
What will amaze you most about this millenary town is the calm.
My hotel, the elegant St Martin’s Klooster, located in an old monastery, is only a 20-minute walk from the exercise station, and on my adventure only 4 cars passed.
The rest of the traffic is made up of gently rumbling city buses and students on bicycles. And, my God, there are many.
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Often, compared to Oxford or Cambridge in the UK, Leuven’s student population amounts to 50,000 and the maximum of those young people on two wheels.
That means it’s not the position to walk around your phone, unless you like to narrowly escape the wheels of the ubiquitous “sit and beg” motorcycles that spin fairly quickly.
As long as you don’t lose sight of your virtual devices, Leuven is the ideal city for pedestrians and cyclists. Thanks to an ambitious plan to reduce carbon emissions, Leuven has one of the greenest cities in Europe, with cars virtually banned at the centre.
What this does is amazing.
I’ve never visited a place with so little background noise, which means that when I open my hotel window, the outside is as quiet as the inside.
Don’t let the quiet atmosphere fool you, thanks to the students, there is a lot of bustle to find. So what better way to notice it than an outing to the city?
There is much to discover, especially since Leuven recently voted “the most open-minded city in Europe”.
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Leuven has a thriving food scene, with cafes and bistros brimming with cobblestone sidewalks.
Even on Tuesday nights, the restaurants here are packed. Locals, academics and tourists enjoy all the enthusiasm of a city that is gaining popularity.
If you like your food stalls to be full of energy, then Baraca on Tiensestraat, in the city’s main food stall district, is the place for you. It serves a variety of pizzas, pastas and small plates, as well as fruity wines and refreshing beers. , the dining position is full my scale on a Tuesday night.
The shells are dressed in a spicy sauce, while the pizza is topped with tomatoes on a crispy base, just as Italy had planned.
If you crave a slice of good food, then Taste, a sublime and complicated place to eat on naamsestraat, is where you head.
With warm lighting, intimate tables, and even your own cutlery drawer, this stylish place to eat is the best if you need to pamper yourself. The theatrical elements, from the Gothic sheep skull to an original ice cream cart, add to its many charms: and the wines, very well combined with the dish, are worth a visit.
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For those who must find where all those scholars are hiding, this is not a position to eat passurmet, the position to pass is De Hoorn.
Located in the trendy commercial domain of the canal, the place to eat was once a Stella Artois brewery. Now, however, it’s home to a place to eat and an open-concept bar, and on the night I visit, masses of satisfied students.
Serving the same things academics know and love, from burgers to tacos, De Hoorn is relaxed and lively, with friendly and content guests. The type of position where you can spend with a large organization of friends or enjoy alone without feeling uncomfortable. The burgers are tasty, the desserts are sweet, and the beer menu is the right kind. What more can a student be asked to look out for?
Well, a few more beers. That’s when it’s time to head to the Oude Markt.
Marketed as “the longest bar in Europe”, the Oude Markt is a collection of bars, side by side along the cobbled street.
From Belgian beers to British varieties, locate virtually any and all types of beer here.
Students love this place, so expect it to be noisy, especially on Thursdays, which is the night most scholars faint in Leuven. there are fewer people, but there is no shortage of things to look at: architecture will appeal to you.
Apart from one or two originals, most of the buildings in the square are replicas, because despite the existing serenity, Leuven has lived a turbulent twentieth century.
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In August 1914, much of the city was burned down by German soldiers, adding the university library, resulting in the destruction of 230,000 books.
After the war, the library was rebuilt at a high point in the city, with the help of the United States. In fact, the library was designed by the American architect Whitney Warren, best known for the Grand Central Terminal in New York. This is not the end of the story, as the library was destroyed once in World War II, along with rarer books and manuscripts.
Rebuilt after the liberation of the country, the library is a functioning university building and a monument to how the puts are recovering from the war.
It is general that in the most sensitive part of the tower I meet Luc Rombouts, a carillon who has been playing bells since 1991.
I started playing with the national anthem of Ukraine every day, as a sign of solidarity with the Ukrainian people, I will continue to play it as long as necessary.
Now that the war has again reached European shores, Luke’s regime has changed.
“I started playing with the national anthem of Ukraine every day, as a sign of solidarity with the Ukrainian people,” he told me. “I will continue to play it as long as necessary. “
After learning about Leuven’s struggles in the two world wars, escaping all of this may seem appealing. Fortunately, nestled in the city, it is the best position to enjoy a moment of peace and tranquility.
The Groot Begjinhof (Great Beaterio) is a thirteenth-century city within a city, with an exclusive history.
From the thirteenth century to the end of the twentieth century, the Great Beaterio housed a network of women, called Beguines, who wanted to withdraw from society.
They are widows, whose husband has died, and they are not interested in remarrying, so they only need to withdraw from society.
“They are widows, whose husbands have died, and they are not interested in remarrying, so they just need to withdraw from society. They’re not interested in being surrounded by men,” says my Leuven Leisure guide, Ryan McGuinness.
“They have been officially ordained, but they are unofficial nuns. The concept is that they are autonomous, that they do their own things, that they send them food down the rivers, that they brew their beer, that they make their own clothes. “,” he continues.
While this might seem like an idyllic reality, it is no longer the case. The last Beguine died in the 1980s and the UNESCO World Heritage Site now belongs to the University of Leuven.
Although the Beguines are gone, the feeling of peace and tranquility remains, making it a non-violent position to walk.
Equally peaceful, though on the outskirts of the city, is Park Abbey. A wonderfully preserved twelfth-century site, the abbey originally housed the Norbertines, an ancient order of the Catholic Church.
Filled with historic artwork, from stunning stucco roofs that defy gravity to the seventeenth-century Jan de Caumont stained glass windows, which have just been restored, the abbey highlights the city’s position in history.
“If it weren’t for the two world wars, we would be on a par with Oxford and Cambridge. But history is history,” says my guide.
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Undoubtedly, the most striking construction in Leuven is the city corridor adorned with the Grote Markt.
Composed of 235 statues, the room required 30 years of paintings through 3 architects and highly appreciated by the French literary giant Victor Hugo.
On the other side of the square is St. Peter’s Church, which houses the triptych of the Last Supper by dieric Bouts.
The excursion of the “hololenses” to the church, which sees visitors dressed in a virtual real helmet, is a wonderful metaphor for how history and modernity overlap in this city.
With so many replicas of buildings, it’s hard to know what’s original and what’s not. But it doesn’t matter.
The city is in the long run now, and the afterlife will not stop it.