Leuven is a city with a sense of culture and grace, being located in the east of Brussels, Belgium. It’s the first city I visited during the Europe journey. Thanks to Kimmy’s invitation and his cousin’s warm hospitality, I had a great time.
I landed in Brussel on June 1st. After that I took a “SNCB” train to Leuven, which took around 30 minutes. Kimmy’s cousin goes to University of Leuven as an international exchange student. She’s from Shanghai Fudan University. During the 3-month study in Europe, she had visited couple of European cities. She was like an experienced guide, taking us here and there.
Most of the people in Leuven speak Dutch and French. So it’s a little bit difficult for us to ask for directions. We visited the Grote Markt, which is the most well-known plaza in Leuven. Most of the buildings are Gothic architectures. The city hall of Leuven (The Stadhuis van Leuven) and a grand church called Sint-Pieterskerk were established here. The ancient patterns and magnificent Gothic deeply attracted me. Both historic buildings are the symbols of the city. When we went to the plaza, there was a christian gatherings just then. Old christian people were standing in front of the city hall, singing a chorus song happily. I couldn’t figure out the meaning of the it, but I guessed they were celebrating something.
Catholic University Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Dutch) is a famous university in Belgium. For me the most impressive part is the historic library. Everyhing in the library looked just divine. The students from modern ages were holding mac laptops, having monster beats on, walking in and out of the library. There’s a grand plaza named Mgr. Ladeuzeplein in front of the library, with a wacky statue: A bug stabbed by a high needle, being called “Totem”. I still didn’t get the significance of it. All I know is the bug must have had a great view for viewing the whole leuven city.
VANDAZIA PLAZA 