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Published: April 5th 2009
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Leuvern
Stadhuis " I don't know, I'm not from here and are you sure your at the right place?"
- man at train station in Mechelen
Going to Leuven and Mechelen today the 14 February (happy Valentines day ps) was fun. Waking up to ride my bike to Amsterdam Lelylaan to catch my train to Schiphol, then Brussles Nord, then Leuven was not. Nevertheless I made it to Leuven, with a couple of z's on the train while I was at it.
Leuven was nice. Its located maybe 30 minutes or so by train from Brussels , east of Brussels. Its a student city so weekend is probably not the best time to go if you wanna see what typical Leuveians (is that a word?) look like as most of them have gone home to see their parents girlfriends boyfriends or whatever. I didn't get to meet any couch surfers this time if you wandering as most of them were not intending to be around on the weekend.
But it was really nice. The first thing I did when I got Leuven was get a map from the station and then I followed the walk of the map into the
city centre to the Sint-Peterskerk and the Stadhuis. You can get a free map from the western union near the international tourist desk at Leuven - though dont ask them for tourist information as they don't really no much they'll just tell you to go to the tourist office in the old town of Lueven.
All in all I did the 7km walk around Leuevn quite slowly - taking in all the sites, as a couch surfer that I mailed told me to check out the great market, the old market, the library and a few of the other churches. I really enjoyed walking around the street of Groot Beigjnhof and near the church of Groot Beignhof as they were so old school cobbled and the stones were totally worn out and at times it felt like they were running all the way up the building from the path. Really cool. After being their for a while my stomach was screaming feed me. So I did. I went to Ali Baba's on Korte straat or something like that and got a kebab with fries on it or frites good lord (4.40e) - near the main square and the Sint
Mechelen
I really enjoyed this curch Pieterskerk. I sat on the kerb like a bum and enjoyed the sunshine oh yes. After having a brief rest I continued my walk around to Miechelesestraat where I would totally recommend you to visit as they have delicious apple pie for 90 euro cents I should have gotten 2 narf narf narf. Oh the glory. There was another nice little old street that was up Klien Begijnhof.
It was around 2pm when I finished my visit of Leuevn. I decided I could solider on and check out Mechelen as well. My eurail pass had been stamped (for the fifth time - and I had changed the date and that was that today was the end of the eurail saga!)
My train arrived at 2:30pm and took about half an hour to get to Mechelen. Initially I was disappointed. Mechelen looks more industrial then Leuevn when you get out of the station - plus I asked a guy at the ticket office what he recommend that I see in Mechelen. His reply seemed a really blunt
" I don't know, I'm not from here and are you sure your at the right place?"
He told me
the tourist office was just up the street. I started walking and it didn't get any better looking - although I later realised I was walking the wrong way more into like a business district. When I finally reached the old town though I was pleasantly surprised. It was quite lively - a market was going on (whereas in Leuven most of the shops were closed and there only seemed to be tourists out and about). There was a cool young talent comp going on and i heard someone play a rock version of Let it Be by the Beatles. It sounded awesome. I also visited a church and it was so nice and peaceful feeling in their. I stumbled into this art/history centre of Mechelen. It was cute and small - I initially thought it was a church as I heard these crazy awesome bells playing. I went up to the bell tower and I heard someone yelling demanding to know who it was coming up. I decided I couldn't be arsed playing the stupid act - and later found out your only meant to go up to the bell tower by invitation!
Anyways the lady was so
Leuvern
Outside the station cute when I finished my tour she gave me one of the post cards for free.
I found a shop that sold Lebanese cucumbers! Yum i had not had these bad boys for ages. I couldn't resist and got one - although it did cost like 3e a kilo. Then while munching on my cuc i continued down the street - and found this store with a mad shoe sale and brought some hiking/walking boots. I think Gran would have been proud. Weary but content I made it finally on the train to Amsterdam getting of at Schiphol. On the train i met a guy coming from Lyon and we talked about travels and dutch and learning dutch - and I talked a bit in dutch also. All in all a good day was to be had!
Got back home at around 10pm. Whew!
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