In October, Ariane says, the population of Leuven doubles with the influx of university students. Now it is rather sleepy. My tentative plan is to look around town, then take a ride out to where my next Vrienden op de Fiets hosts are, a place called Korbeek-Dijle, southwest of town. Tomorrow I'll stay in yet another place, east of Leuven. This is fine; on a trip like this, it's good to keep moving.
Ariane's apartment is quite near the center of Leuven, a functional flat with large windows overlooking a playground occupied by swarthy locals. She's lived there for the past three years.
![]() |
Leuven |
(original date of this entry: Aug 22, 2018)
Leuven is an attractive bourgeois town, and unlike Ghent there are few tourists. After the Entrepot, I had a look at the Kleine Begijnhof (old residential complex for unmarried women), then found a bike repair store where I had my creaky pedals replaced. Next found one of those French-style terrace cafes and had a Stella Artois, which is brewed here. I could have sat there all day but instead took a look around the center. Like Mechelen it has a madly baroque structure, though I have no guidebook to tell me what it is. The Oud Markt is a sea of cafés, probably getting busy about now. But I have to leave town since my hosts are a ways out of town.
Leuven is an attractive bourgeois town, and unlike Ghent there are few tourists. After the Entrepot, I had a look at the Kleine Begijnhof (old residential complex for unmarried women), then found a bike repair store where I had my creaky pedals replaced. Next found one of those French-style terrace cafes and had a Stella Artois, which is brewed here. I could have sat there all day but instead took a look around the center. Like Mechelen it has a madly baroque structure, though I have no guidebook to tell me what it is. The Oud Markt is a sea of cafés, probably getting busy about now. But I have to leave town since my hosts are a ways out of town.
Geuze Boon is a sour lambiek beer of Brussels. It can only be made in that area since it is fermented from the bacteria of that region.
This I learned from Maarten. He and Tine are Vrienden op de Fiets in Kordeel-Dijle.
![]() |
Arenbergpark |
It is quiet out here but the highway makes a continuous drone. Tine and Maarten are unusual for Vrienden op de Fiets, rather young, and they have two kids and a border collie. It's gezellig but they don't seem to feel like conversing.
Tine is a small, perky woman with luminescent eyes that she's passed on to her daughter. Maarten is an easygoing, somewhat shy, long-haired dude. While he was getting the kids off to "creative camp," he put my breakfast on the table: granola, yogurt, fresh grapefruit juice, good coffee, a jar of homemade jam, bread. They live in an old farmhouse that belongs to Tine's family, upgraded to modern design standards. The bathroom has a rainshower that resembles a Star Trek beam-up station; I couldn't get the water to reduce from scalding hot. Anyway I'm glad I stayed there because it gave me a chance to see another, rural side of Leuven.
Tine is a small, perky woman with luminescent eyes that she's passed on to her daughter. Maarten is an easygoing, somewhat shy, long-haired dude. While he was getting the kids off to "creative camp," he put my breakfast on the table: granola, yogurt, fresh grapefruit juice, good coffee, a jar of homemade jam, bread. They live in an old farmhouse that belongs to Tine's family, upgraded to modern design standards. The bathroom has a rainshower that resembles a Star Trek beam-up station; I couldn't get the water to reduce from scalding hot. Anyway I'm glad I stayed there because it gave me a chance to see another, rural side of Leuven.
(Aug 23, 2018)
Cool, overcast morning, and I've been wandering the area southwest of Leuven. Kind of misty and forlorn.

![]() |
Leuven - Oud-Heverlee - Leuven |
The ride from Ormendalweg to the village of Oud-Heverlee was great, a dirt trail that follows the Dijle river. (It appears to be on both the LF-5 and LF-2.) The town of Oud-Heverlee seems dull and suburban, and I escaped into the forest (-> kp 79), an old still patch with tall trees. I then attempted to follow part of the suggested route from Lannoo's Fietsen in de grensstreek van Vlaanderen, but did not venture far beyond Sint-Joris Weert, with a little train station. I tried to find the "natuurgebied" by a lake to the south without success. Sint-Joris is downhill from the forest and you can actually get some views of the countryside, not unlike Limburg. The book was published pre-knooppunten, and the knooppunten in my Vlaanderen fiets atlas seem totally out of date. There seem to be a number of new knooppunten. The best source is fietsnet.be but you've got to be online to use it. Everyone uses GPS these days except me. I still like old paper maps with an occasional glance at citymaps2go, which sometimes works offline in unlikely places like Oud-Heverlee.
A brilliant dash through the woods on a slender packed-dirt trail ends up at kp 78 with directions to kp 77 (east toward Mollendalbos) and 82 (north toward Heverleebos), though neither appears on my any map--not even the posted ones. I decide to go north (back toward Leuven) on the Nethense Baan.
![]() |
Heverleebos |
To kp 82 is a lovely broad rolling path through the forest, which then heads east to reach old fields. Then it's a left to kp 76 and down an old gravel lane across from a farmstead. The whole ride is a joy. This route appears to be along the LF-6b. At kp 76 you can go to 1 (back west where I came from) or 70 (unknown), which corresponds to the LF-6. This way is along the Herendreef, which on citymaps2go goes a long way north through Heverlee forest. If I'm going in the right direction, I should go under the thruway. Let's see now …
My hunch was borne out as the drone from the A3/E40 increased in volume and soon I tunneled under it--the tunnel a metal tube with floor lighting. Much easier than going over it toward kp 1, which involved a serious climb. Then I continue north on Herendreef toward kp 75 and continue through the Heverleebos. Excellent woodsy day trip.
![]() |
Free parking, Leuven |
No comments:
Post a Comment