Leuven etc: Winnen is kindersplat?

Leuven, Belgium

On the way to Antwerp, we dropped in to Leuven. All I knew about this place was that they kicked out their French university students and sent them to Louvain-la-Neuve in the 70's, and that there's a pub in Wellington by the same name. From this I drew two correct assumptions: Leuven is a university town and a brewery town (it is the birthplace of Stella Artois among others). Assumptions aside, I discovered that the architecture is beautiful and the streets vibrant. 

Two unusual statues caught my attention: a metallic beetle the size of a van impaled onto a tall spike, and four men in a hot air balloon. Apparently this monument has no historic or artistic significance, as all I can find out about it is that it depicts people riding in a hot air balloon. No shit. 

The fifteenth century Stadhuis (town hall) is resplendent with its ornate facade and flowering baskets. The multitude of statues was added later, in the mid-nineteenth century, displaying over two hundred of Leuven's important figures. It miraculously avoided decimation in the world wars. 

You may find that Leuven's Sint-Pieterskirk looks somehow incomplete. This is because while they were building ambitious towers (the tallest of which would reach 170 meters - the tallest structure in the world at the time), they ran out of money and the foundations proved unstable. They were forced to abandon the towers in 1541, and although they have never been completed the church is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. 

The Universitybiblioteek has been rebuilt after both world wars. The current iteration was designed after WWI, and was faithfully rebuilt in the same style after WWII. If my university library looked like this, I may have studied more, though it's possible my major would have been in architecture. 

Louvain-la-Neuve

In a related story, we visited the Hergé museum in the highly industrial-feeling town of Louvain-la-Neuve near Brussels. Fabienne and I were not interested enough to go inside, so we read in the café while Yannick browsed the original Tintin sketches. The history of the town is odd to me: in the 1970's the town was created due to linguistic conflicts between the Flemmish and French students of the University of Leuven. French students were moved to this new "planned city" while Flemmish students stayed in Leuven. It turns out that it felt industrial because we had only driven in the underground area. The university had a strong hand in the layout of the town and decided that a mainly pedestrian focus would be best so all the roads lay beneath the main town like an underground carpark. If we had known at the time of our visit, we would have explored the overground area and I'm sure our experience would have been much different. 

And now for something completely different. During our time in Belguim, there were certain things that stood out that weren't related to specific places. 

So, Flemmish and Dutch words are fun. "Winnen is kinderspel!" (I always mispronounced it 'kinder-splat') translates to "winning is child's play". It was on a random advertisement, but I had to get a photo for the fun words. I also like "winkel" (shop), "knippen" (cut) and "smaak" (flavour). 

As in France, we would visit McDonalds chains in order to obtain free wifi (though it wasn't exactly free as we had to purchase a small coke to be allowed the privilege of sitting down). We would use this to find camping grounds and use the sockets to charge our devices. During one trip, I found a happy meal balloon. 

Pubs were also viable option for wifi, and they served better drinks. My go-to beverage is sparkling water, but on occasion I will have a kir royal (cassis, a black currant liqueur, with sparkling wine) if I'm feeling fancy. Yannick often goes for Orangina as his first choice, or rosé. Fabienne has been working her way through a long list of beers. Belgium makes this easy. 

The weather since leaving France has been much colder than I had anticipated for a European summer, and rainier as well. With my warm rain jacket and umbrella combo, I can overcome anything.