Day 28 – 19 Km walked today – total walked of 600 Km - Leuven

Eagle-eyed observers may have noticed that the delights of Chimay Dubbel caused me to mistype yesterday's total walked which I have now corrected to 581 Km. Spookily, today's walk of 19 Km makes our total walked to a round 600 Km, with no cheating or rounding up.

With no marked cycle ways to Leuven, we decided that today was about “getting the job done.” Originally, we intended to try to navigate from village to village, on back roads. But starting out in rain and missing the cycle way out of town, we found ourselves on a 19 Km, dead straight, flat, road to Leuven – respect to the Romans who did a lot of stuff around here – nice one boys.

By the way, it is not just the roads that are straight – have a look at this cycle way from yesterday.

The previous night Doris had done her usual bargain hunting and come up with an amazing deal on a hotel in Leuven. Also, as I had spent some time working in Leuven a long time ago, I knew it was a nice place unless the bulldozers had moved in and the university relocated. So we had plenty of incentive to get there and figured out that if we stayed on the main road and really went for it, we could be there at 14:00, to enjoy both our posh hotel and the town. We arrived in the town centre at 13:55, escaping the worst of the day's heat which we had already seen measured at 27 degrees.

[Note for Jsam if he is still reading. The work in Leuven was with Langton for a client named Pencoprint]

We both slept badly last night because although our hotel was friendly and hospitable, it had no air conditioning and was on a main road and junction / drop-off point. The night was a tussle between withstanding the noise and tolerating the humid heat that remained from a day of around 30 degrees. We oscillated between the two, window opening and closing continuously, with sleep the helpless victim.

So having arrived early, we decided on a siesta, from which we have just woken, despite the church clock that chimes every quarter of an hour, in otherwise total silence. We are hoping that the chiming will either stop at a respectable hour or go unnoticed, as it did during our siestas – watch this space.

As the bulldozers have indeed not moved in and Leuven seems to have maintained its leisurely student ambiance, together with more bicycles that you can shake a stick at – stay calm Les, I know what you are thinking – we are off to have a mooch around and find somewhere nice to eat.

Maybe, we'll write some more later but as I will have my eyes open for lovely local trappist beers, then perhaps not...

...now if last night was through rose, or perhaps Chimay, tinted glasses then the judgment that follows is totally objective: we lurve Leuven. This is a lovely place.

A stone's throw from our hotel, is a very long, narrow, street full of nothing but restaurants. It is mostly European cuisine but there are also tempting Moroccan, Japanese and others. All have seating outside and on a warm Friday night it was bustling with diners eating, drinking and just wandering up an down trying to decide. It is a great atmosphere and we lingered as long as our tired limbs would allow.

It is tempting to linger even longer, perhaps a day or more, to try more places and enjoy a really great ambiance. But we both now feel that , although we continue to enjoy the journey, we are on our way home and an additional day here, is a day more away from home. That said, we are greatly looking forward to Bruges and may well take a day out to enjoy it to the full. But for a other travelers, with different goals, we unreservedly recommend Lueven as a place to stay and linger.

Before closing this evening, I need to mention that Doris managed to translate the Chimay label. It turns out that this wonderful beer, one of the top three in the world in my humble opinion, is still brewed by monks who donate most of the profits to worthy causes.

So in finishing this glass in front on me, I am not only doing God's work, I am also contributing to worthy causes. Better have another – gawd bless...hic...never had to walk with a hangover yet...first time for everything I guess...all in a good cause...

Musical choice...hic...hic.... is Queen and “Don't Stop Me Now”....because I am having a good time, having a good time – sing along you bastards!

Oh! I nearly forgot to mention that today we have walked for exactly four weeks, 600 Km and are pretty pleased with ourselves...time for ermm...a toast|