Leuven the City

It was a cold and foggy morning. A shot rang out! Or a drunk stepped on a loose cobblestone. Probably the latter. Leuven college students party during the week because most of them are from there and go home on the weekends to be with family and do laundry.

So we were up at 6:30 and ready to go. After our complimentary continental breakfast (Beth loves the coffee), we were off!

We started out by looking for the park I tried finding the other day, but got sidetracked again when we saw a map of town and noticed a large green area near where we were standing. We headed over and found a cool botanical garden. I took some pictures while Ben morphed into Lightning McQueen and raced around all the little paths; he loved it!

Funny side story: I don’t think Ben likes anyone calling him “buddy” or “dude” or “little guy” or anything else. Every time we do, he says “I’m Lapinau” or “I’m Freddy” (A book character and a Little People DVD character) or “I’m Lightning McQueen” in a very matter of fact voice. It’s hilarious because he can’t be sidetracked. Even if he’s at the garden, racing around, laughing, I’ll say, “C’mon bud, let’s head this way.” “I’m Lightning McQeen” I’ll say, “Ok, Lightning, this way.” Then a minute later I’ll say, “Nice jumping pal!” he immediately responds, “I’m Freddy”. It either gets hysterical or frustrating depending on if he’s doing what I ask.

So we were at the gardens for like an hour or a little more and then headed back to the intersection where we got sidetracked, and this time we headed back in the direction of the park. And this time we finally found it! It was all wet.

So we headed back to the hotel to use the bathroom (good luck finding somewhere to use the bathroom in Europe…) and have a snack and then headed back out to do a little shopping.

Beth still wants some brown boots, if the right pair presents itself, and Ben really needs some new shoes but everything was saw was $85 at a minimum.

We then went looking for this Mexican place I had seen the other day, but it eluded us, so we headed back towards the hotel.

We needed food though, so we stopped in a chinese place that was next door and looked alright. It turns out, it was awesome!

For 13 Euros, you get the salad bar (had some sushi and other weird stuff, not a great salad bar) and then you get to order from this menu with 50 or so choices. The portions are small, but delicious, and you can order as many as you want. Five times. And the food was way better than Imperial Garden. This was five star quality food. We weren’t super hungry because we had stopped at McDonalds to get Ben lunch and each had a burger, but even ordering as little as we did, we got our money’s worth.

Ben napped and we headed back out, this time to the Groot Begijnhof (Great Beguinage). It was getting dark and we didn’t know exactly where it was, but we found our way near to it and then asked around.

The first girl we asked was a college girl who had no idea where it was. It turns out it was right next to us as we asked her, but we didn’t find that out until we asked the next lady. She had a stroller and was very nice. It turns out they were living in the Great Beguinage with her other child (who we just missed at the botanical gardens that morning with his grandma) and her husband who is working on his Ph.D.

She was headed home to it, so as we walked, she told us the history.

It was built in the 1300’s and was originally a place for nuns. Later, it was made a home for widows of rich men killed in wars as well. There were holes in the outer walls so that the poor who were too ashamed to beg could put their arm through anonymously. Present day, it is used for housing students on the poor side of the economic scale. http://www.leuven.be/en/tourism/sightseeing/beguinages/groot-begijnhof/index.jsp

I let the camera take it’s time getting the light it needed so that I could get some cool night shots. I got em! I have to rotate a couple of them to make them level (no tripod, I had to use our backpack and my gloves under the camera to angle it...while laying on the ground most of the time), but they are pretty sweet pictures I think. I like how the river looks like a smooth road (the shutter was open for like 5 or 6 seconds, so the river flowing turned into a smooth road of water). The light in the sky and on the buildings is pink because the street lamps were that color, and even though it was very dark and foggy out, the camera sucked in as much of the nearest light it could get, and it happened to be that color.

We walked through the Beguinage and stayed in the middle so we wouldn’t get lost and then stopped at the church so I could get the perfect picture. It’s almost perfect, but I think that if I had a tripod I could have done better.

Beth gave Ben a snack and kept him occupied while I spent like 30 min getting a good pic. Beth really wanted a nice picture of a church in the fog, so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

By then we were cold, and Ben was hungry; Beth wasn’t too hungry, and I was moderately hungry.

Beth and Ben went back to the hotel and I stopped at our favorite restaurant, Tomry, to get a filet mignon with pepper sauce for myself (amazingly good) as well as a Brussels waffle with ice cream and cherries and a pancake with butter and apple (it was flambéed) and ice cream (that was really really good). Then I brought it back to the hotel. We had also stopped at the grocery store and got some food for Ben to eat, cheese, bread and some other stuff. He ate a lot of that, but then ate a bunch of my steak and fries. He loved the steak too.

Ben slept great all the nights in the hotel too by the way.

Have I mentioned we love Belgium?