Years ago I used to work near a cafe called Leuven in Featherston Street, which specialised in beer and Mussels (neither of which I fancied, but my workmates did). Little did I know that Leuven is the home of Stella Artois which is a huge belgian beer producer, and as in the rest of Belgium, shell fish is essential to the diet.
But more importantly, Leuven is a very old university town, with 500 years of challenging minds to its credit.
We wandered around a delightful UNESCO site called a Beguinnage where all the buildings were constructed of brick. This was a place where women of 'good character' could live independently without taking vows (to become nuns). It was a charming residential village inside gated walls, and included a convent and church of course.
It does seem that we have a very important criteria for whether a town is enjoyable - does it have good coffee? Well Leuven ticked the box with belgian chocolates thrown in for free. Moreover, we realised that if we just bought a packet of the coffee beans freshly roasted on the premise, we would get a free expresso each...why did we not learn that before we paid for coffees?!
The old market boasts no less than 42 "cafes" on one huge square (I mean rectangle). This student town has a huge night-life and enough bicycles to rival any self-respecting town in the Netherlands.
And finally, every town should have a man hitting a bell....well in Belgium anyway!
