A Day in Leuven

11/24…

My first day in Belgium we decided to stay around Leuven. Wim rented me a bike for the week (yes Dad – you read that right – a BIKE) so after we got ready we took the bikes and headed toward the city centre. We got about 3 blocks away when Wim stopped us so he could show me one of his favorite places in the city. There’s an old beguinage from the 1600’s right by where he lives. For those of you like me who have no idea what that is, I guess I would equivocate it to an old nunnery with a twist. The beguines were mostly widows and “spinsters” who wanted to live a religiously committed life but independently and disconnected from the church with the vows of fidelity and poverty (my kind of ladies!) They organized themselves into these self supported “cities of peace”. The property has since been added to the UNESCO World Heritage list and converted to apartments and housing mostly rented by students and professors. The area is gorgeous, closed off from everything else. The streets are all cobblestone and the buildings are all the old original red brick, though Jan and Wim told me that back in the 1600s it’s possible it may have been whitewashed. We walked through the old streets slowly and I understood why it was one of his favorite places to wander. Despite the cold weather and the raindrops that wouldn’t seem to leave us alone the whole place had a compelling beauty and mystery. At one point I noticed that one of the buildings had a small stone placed above the door that looked like it was depicting one of the stations of the cross. Sure enough, further down I saw another. I could just picture a group of old ladies in the 1600s walking the streets and saying the prayers for the stations. I felt like I was in one of my favorite books. I think if Wim had an apartment there, I don’t know that I would’ve left.

Next we headed to the city centre to meet Jan for lunch. The way the close streets with the vendors and shops were situated reminded me of the shopping streets of Galway yet there was no mistaking their Belgian nature. More brick buildings and adorable window displays with lots of outdoor seating are prevalent in the area and it seemed like every place I turned I saw something worth looking at. Though I honestly couldn’t imagine eating outside as the weather was so much colder than what I was used to in Gozo…maybe down to about 45 degrees? I was relieved when we decided to eat inside at Pan Cotidiene, one of Wim’s favorite places to eat in Leuven. Like a lot of the places in this area, PC makes their own bread, which Wim said is the best around. The focus is on the food and not the décor so the place is painted simply with a warm yellow color and the seating is mainly one large dining table that everyone eats around in family style. Wim got me an English menu (yay!) and when I saw the egg and ham sandwich on the menu I had to have it, realizing I hadn’t had an egg since my first week in Gozo (I can’t trust them now that I know they don’t refrigerate them at the store.)

After lunch, Jan had to continue working on school stuff so Wim and I spent the afternoon in Leuven on our own. Wim showed me around the city centre (the Town Hall is particularly gorgeous) and we tried to find a rain jacket for me though we didn’t look too hard. I was trying to make it through the trip without one. We made an unplanned stop at the church in the City Centre where we discovered that there was church museum and a small exhibit of artwork. When we found out we could get a student price, we figured, “why not?” I was grateful we gave it a shot because the place was stunning. Some of the art was unbelievable and reminded me how much I love Flemish and Dutch painters. It also got me excited to go to the art exhibit we were seeing later at the museum in Leuven. The best part of the church was getting to go down into a crypt where Wim and I took many photos and talked a lot about how the entire place would creep the crap out of Areyl.

Next on the list for the day was to go to Wim’s favorite coffee shop in town, which is a coffee place inside of a book shop. Or it’s a book shop inside of a coffee place. It’s hard to tell and they are blended so well together that it doesn’t really matter. The low relaxing brown leather chairs in front beg for you to sink in with a drink and a book. The long butcher block dining table in the back is more welcoming for students, and somewhere in the middle are some tall stools near the counter for those that want to thumb through the magazines or don’t need as much space. I’d say as far as size goes, the whole place is probably as big as just the café portion of a Borders or Barnes and Noble at home. The place was packed and so Wim and I chose the tall stools. I got the “Nocciolato” at Wim’s suggestion, which I guess I could equivocate with a hazelnut latte back home…but OH SO MUCH BETTER. This was also my first time enjoying the perk that Belgian coffee is usually served with a piece of chocolate on the side. Score. I like that WAY better than dried out biscuits or small pieces of cake like they serve in Gozo. Wim also treated me to a Lonely Planet Guidebook for Belgium which I was really excited about though slightly embarrassed for not having brought one with me.

Next it was on to the art exhibition at the new museum in Leuven. http://www.rogiervanderweyden.be/en/exhibition
Thankfully Wim got us tickets in advance because the whole thing was sold out. The exhibition was of a collection from Rogier van der Weyden, one of the premier artists of the 15th century who is known as the “Master of Passions” and was a Belgian treasure. I love his work and was thrilled that we got to see the exhibit while it was touring in its home country. In the first room there were these two enormous tapestries that we just gawked at. Though hand done, they were ridiculously intricate and you could probably look at them the rest of your life and not take in every detail. We stayed in that first room for quite awhile and it was hard to wrench ourselves away to see the rest. Unfortunately we seemed to be followed closely on our heels by a tour group of senior citizens. They shuffled through the exhibit like zombies, taking over every piece of art as they did so and squeezing their way into every nook and cranny. It was refreshing that the exhibit was so well attended but annoying at the same time. I just kept thinking that if my sister were there she would’ve either thrown some bows or quit the whole thing by the time she got to the second room. At one point we were trying to maneuver through the crowd and you could see this tour group slowly coming towards us. I turned to Wim and started slowly uttering, “here they come…here they come…here they come” like we were in a weird kind of slow danger. Wim couldn’t hold it together and started laughing, causing me to do the same. The tour guide saw us and gave me a knowing look like “oh I get it, and hey…I’m the one who has to lead them around this place!” We did our best impersonation of salmon going upstream and decided it might be better to try to stay behind the group for the rest of the exhibit. Despite the tour group the entire exhibit was breathtaking and well done by the museum. Wim was delighted that it had been billed as such a prestigious event and had lived up to the expectation.

Back on the street we planned to meet up with Jan for dinner as well as two other friends, Marjan and Vicky. Jan was at the school library doing some work and Maryjan & Vicky were supposed to be there as well because there was a book sale going on they wanted to check out. Unfortunately the two ladies were still stuck in a work meeting. We found Jan and Wim showed off the library, which he calls the “Harry Potter” library because it’s got rows and rows of the tall shelves loaded with books and the big windows. All it needed was darker lighting and Filch and Mrs. Norris roaming the halls. We checked out the book sale while we were there, hoping that by the time we were finished, Vicky & Maryjan would be done with their meeting but unfortunately not. We decided to have dinner and meet them for a drink later instead. We wanted to keep it cheap since PC was kind of expensive for lunch so we went to a place for Belgian fries! Since I’m not a ketchup lover and definitely would never put mayo on them (or both like some Belgian friends I know!) I decided to get mine with a side of a traditional Belgian dish…of course, I forget what it’s called now but it was a stew. And it was all tasty. Probably the best fries I’ve ever had.

Vicky and Marjan texted to say they were finally done so we set out to meet them, saying goodbye to Jan along the way. They weren’t in the first bar they were supposed to be in because it had been too packed so we went to a second location and finally found them upstairs getting ready to eat. They also had Christine with them, a girl who went on the Gozo trip with them this summer. It was so amazing to see them both again. I think we all forgot how much we like hanging out together until we had the opportunity to do it again. We all reminisced about stories from our trip last summer and Wim and I eagerly listened to stories about this year’s trip. We were all debating staying for another beer or heading home when Marjan heard from Sam that he’d be joining us. Not only do Vicky and Maryjan work with Sam now but he is also the organizer of the Gozo trip so we decided to stay so we could see him too. It was great to just be there with that group, hearing about their lives in Belgium – their jobs, their family, their friends – I found myself wondering what it would be like if I lived there too. Weird how you can know people for such a short period of time and yet feel so connected to them. I left the bar feeling very happy and very blessed.