I wasn't supposed to go to Leuven. The thing is that I noticed that the train that I had taken to go to th village of Bordet (in search of bargain at the local Decathlon) also went to Leuven and I became curious.
What can I say? I LOVED THIS CITY. First of all, it's too cool when you arrive at a train station and it is so clear which street you should take to go the center. Just go straight and you are there. In my case, I made a little deviation to the University Library destoryed not once but twice by the Germans during the two world wars. The library, as the entire uni, was initially built in 1425 and when I was there, there was an exhibition for its 600 (!!!) years. Really cool to know more about it and to get to view the city from its bell tower (because why not, let's make a library with a bell tower).
Loved the irony of the city with the mosquito penetrated by a giant pointy stick, just in front of the university and the "fountain of knowledge". The city center was lovely, with its church and town hall and its vegetables and international food market. There was even a vinyl market!!! I love these!
Then I went to the Grand Beguinage, a village within the city, originally built and inhabited by women that wanted to isolate themselves in parayer without joining any religious institution. The silence of this area is difficult to explain...
From there I went to the botanical garden that surprised me for the amount of species that is preseved inside it and, of course, for its quiet.
In short, average age is 25 yo and everyone goes everywhere by bike. What else could you possible ask?