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Published: April 10th 2008
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Leuven
Leuven In my haste to catch up on my blogging, I realized I’ve forgotten an entire day of my trip - my first full day! Graeme read about a university town named Leuven in their Brussels book (rented from the library, I might add, a great idea!) and we decided to check it out. It’s tough to describe it in a blog because it won’t do it justice, but I will try briefly as I think it’s certainly a good partial day trip from Brussels, especially since it’s only approximately 30 minutes by train. Leuven is really just a charming town with some beautiful architecture, the university and a good number of shops and restaurants (cafes, bars, taverns, etc). Side note here, just as a fun fact - we looked it up in the guide book book and there are about 7 different classifications of eating and drinking establishments depending on their hours, what they serve, how they operate, etc. We pretty much just strolled around Leuven, enjoying the atmosphere and of course the food and tea. I will try to post a photo or two, and you can always check out my flickr account at www.flickr.com/mayamcgee/photos for a whole lot more
Grand Market Antwerp
Grand Market in Antwerp of my travel photos.
So that was my first day (or at least those parts really worth noting) in Belgium. Jumping forward to yesterday, we took the train to Antwerp just to check it out. It’s about 50 minutes by train from Brussels and I’d say it’s worth seeing, although I wouldn’t categorize it as a “must”. It does have a small “Old Town” with some nice churches, buildings and “Grand Markets”, which are basically what we call town squares. However, I did find two of my favorite eateries here - one called Exki which was kind of like a dine in/carry out place that focused on healthy, natural food and had a lot of veg options which of course is always a big relief for a vegetarian to find when traveling. The other was called Vapiano and it was a create your own pasta/pizza place. Basically they had all types of pastas, sauces, pizza toppings etc and you order what you’d like and they give you a buzzer that goes off when you are ready. It was wonderful! Antwerp is also home to the P.P. Rubens House/Museum (for those of you unfamiliar, he is the artist known for
Me sitting on a Sculpture in Antwerp
Me sitting on a sculpture in Antwerp painting “large women”). We did not go in, but wanted to note for anyone that may be interested. One warning about Antwerp - the books say it has one of the largest harbors in Europe, and while it is a large harbor, it’s not particularly attractive and there’s not much on the waterfront - or at least not much a visitor would be interested in seeing. Antwerp does have a newer section with tons of shops of all different types and price levels, for those of you who visit Brussels and Bruges and still need more shopping!
On the way back from Antwerp we planned to stop in Gent, which we did, but not realizing there were two stops we got off at the wrong one and were miles from anything we’d like to see (e.g. we were in the industrial/residential area). Due to it already being late afternoon and there being a train to Brussels that came almost immediately, we hopped on that and ended up skipping Gent. So far, it has really been our only mis-calculation so we’re pretty proud (earlier that day we mastered the Brussels metro, which felt like quite an accomplishment)!
Today we took the train to Geneva, changing stations in Paris. I got a glimpse of Paris and can’t wait to go back! For now though, we are here in Switzerland. We walked all around Geneva and came back to our hotel for dinner. I can’t really say what I think of Geneva yet, as it’s only been about half a day. Our hotel is right on the lake and we have a great view of Geneva’s somewhat landmark fountain. Oh and our hotel gives us swiss chocolates on our pillows when they make up our rooms! We have of course realized first hand exactly how expensive Switzerland is (e.g. 3 CHF for a coke light in a vending machine, and considering an exchange rate of almost 1:1 with the USD, we foresee spending a good amount of money here). So that’s about it for now. I will be back soon! In the mean time, feel free to check out my pictures at the link above.
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Brian
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Big A§§ Hand...
That sculpture of the hand with you sitting in it is pretty huge :-p It sounds like you are having a blast over there. I was glad to be able to catch up with you a bit on chat earlier... I missed you girl ;-p I hope that you have a great time in Geneva and that the weather clears up for you soon. Take care and have fun...