an american in belgië : Leuven

1) Since the weather was really beautiful,

2) we've never visited the city of Leuven, only a half hour away,

3) it's one of the options for Ross to attend graduate school, we decided to take a drive and check it out.

We found Leuven to be a bustling, historic, and beautiful city. It has a population of about 93,000. Bigger than Hasselt (75,000), but not so big as Brussels (2 million). Here's a little interesting info on Leuven . . .

Leuven is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region, Belgium and is located 26 kilometers (16 miles) east of Brussels. The earliest mention of Leuven is from 891 when a Viking army was defeated by the Frankish king Arnulf.

In the 15th century a new golden era began with the founding of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in 1425. It is now the largest and oldest university in Belgium and the oldest Catholic university still in existence.

In the 18th century, Leuven became even more important as a result of the flourishing of the brewery now named InBev. Anheuser-Busch InBev is the world's largest brewing group and one of the top five largest consumer goods companies in the world. In fact, InBev's Stella Artois brewery and main offices dominate the entire northeastern part of the town.

In the 19th century the city became an industrial, but also an intellectual centre. In the 20th century, both World Wars inflicted major damage to the city. Upon German entry in World War I, the town was heavily damaged and the university library was deliberately destroyed by the German army on August 25, 1914. Hundreds of thousands of irreplaceable volumes and Gothic and Renaissance manuscripts were lost. The world was outraged over this and the library was completely rebuilt after World War I with American charity funds and German war indemnities. After World War II, the burnt down University library had to be restored again. It still stands as a symbol of the wars and of Allied solidarity.

Given the presence of the KULeuven, an important European institution for academic research and education, much of the local economy is concentrated on spin-offs from academic research.

Nowadays Leuven is a real "student city", as during the academic year many residents in its centre are students. Leuven sports one of the liveliest bar scenes in Belgium. Besides boasting the "longest bar" in Belgium, it's also the proud home city of Belgium's smallest bar, Onder den Toog. Dozens of bars and cafes are crammed into a central square known as Oude Markt.