Leuven & Bruges, Belgium

(I'm posting about our summer vacation, and starting at the end and working my way forward, so that when read on the blog it will be in cronological order...make sense? no? I didn't think so.)

Back in Leuven, M had taken time each evening to go for a run around town and he really liked the area…possible sabbatical destination?!?!? Fingers crossed!  As with many of the cities we saw, they were working to get the automobiles out of the historic center of town, making it a lovely pedestrian/bicycle zone.  I love all the fun rooflines that told about the original owners professions.

We also liked the university library. Here’s M at the library, just after he’d finished his presentation.

We took a tour of the fancy old late gothic city hall.

It was interesting, but the part we liked best was climbing up a crumbly, cobwebby, guano-ed old spiral staircase up into the attic. The guide didn’t stop us, but wouldn’t go with us, and there was a sign on the door that said “Enter at your own risk” in several languages. It was full of the original weather-worn 15th century statues that had been on the outside of the building. (Replicas are currently on the façade.)

The space had a bit of an Indiana Jones-ish feel to it and we indulged in singing his theme song to the statues. Good memories deserve a theme song too, don’t they?

Our last day and a half were spent in quaint Bruges. Everyone said you HAD to go there and much to our delight, it lived up to all the hype. We were there in the middle of the week, (less crowds) and stayed overnight (day-trippers left the town to us for the evening). The medieval city center is ever so charming and they seem to have hired swans to grace all the most picturesque spots along the canals. We got some wonderful photos during the golden hours at sunset.

When the light faded we sat in the main plaza and ate while we listened to a carillon concert played from the bell tower. It cracked us up every time they played a pop hit from the 1980s; Lionel Richie’s Hello, has never been played with such passion on centuries old bells!

The next day we climbed that bell tower at noon to catch the view and hear the bells.

We took a canal cruise and visited a chocolate museum with a life sized sculpture of President Obama out of solid chocolate…something you don’t see every day. But every day of our week in Belgium, we did peek into a handful of churches and communal courtyards and eat fries and waffles from street vendors and splurge on a ridiculously expensive chocolate or two at the amazing chocolatiers. It was all in all, a grand excursion for all the senses!