Adventures in 2012: Leuven
I had big plans for this year. Plans that involved visiting new cities and exploring the great wide world. Obviously, the year didn't start all that great (as far as free time goes), but now that the big ass work project is done, I can begin with the exploring.
I was searching for beautiful places to visit, and let's face it, around here we have an embarrassment of riches regarding beautiful places. And many, many countries to choose from. One of the advantages of living where I do is that I only need to drive 2 hours and then I could be in five different countries.
This Sunday's goal was Leuven, Belgium. And it was even more beautiful than I imagined it would be.
Leuven's Town Hall.
Image description: Beautiful Gothic building with white columns and lots of tiny ornaments carved on the columns. Also, old European town houses with red and white bricks.
Leuven's market square
Image description: huge town square surrounded by old European buildings. I don't know the style, but it looks old and pretty.
And then there were the beguinages. I'm still surprised that I didn't know about the existence of beguinages. According to my guide book, the Flemish beguinages was a "medieval mystical movement" created by "religious women" (for the record, I'm not making the quotes up, the book had them) who wished to live a committed life outside the recognized religious orders and their votes of chastity and poverty. They organized themselves in self-supported cities of peace, which were basically small towns within the city, enclosed and protected by walls. Widows and spinsters lived inside the beguinages and helped each other and the community.
As you can imagine, I spend half my exploration tour inside the beguinages thinking: "Femslash! Femslash! Medieval femslash! Why has no one written about this yet?!" And imagining properly dressed spinsters, kneeling in front of their friend, pushing the obligatory black skirt aside and going to town.
I'm probably getting history all wrong, and it was all darker and meaner than I think, this being medieval times and all, but I don't want to be corrected. OK?
Image description: narrow street with many red-brick town houses on both side of the street as far as the eye can see
Image description: more red brick houses this time with trees
For the curious, the University of Leuven has bought the whole beguinage, and today mostly professors and students live there.
This entry was originally posted at http://forestgreen.dreamwidth.org/109503.html, where it has
comments.
I was searching for beautiful places to visit, and let's face it, around here we have an embarrassment of riches regarding beautiful places. And many, many countries to choose from. One of the advantages of living where I do is that I only need to drive 2 hours and then I could be in five different countries.
This Sunday's goal was Leuven, Belgium. And it was even more beautiful than I imagined it would be.
Leuven's Town Hall.
Image description: Beautiful Gothic building with white columns and lots of tiny ornaments carved on the columns. Also, old European town houses with red and white bricks.
Leuven's market square
Image description: huge town square surrounded by old European buildings. I don't know the style, but it looks old and pretty.
And then there were the beguinages. I'm still surprised that I didn't know about the existence of beguinages. According to my guide book, the Flemish beguinages was a "medieval mystical movement" created by "religious women" (for the record, I'm not making the quotes up, the book had them) who wished to live a committed life outside the recognized religious orders and their votes of chastity and poverty. They organized themselves in self-supported cities of peace, which were basically small towns within the city, enclosed and protected by walls. Widows and spinsters lived inside the beguinages and helped each other and the community.
As you can imagine, I spend half my exploration tour inside the beguinages thinking: "Femslash! Femslash! Medieval femslash! Why has no one written about this yet?!" And imagining properly dressed spinsters, kneeling in front of their friend, pushing the obligatory black skirt aside and going to town.
I'm probably getting history all wrong, and it was all darker and meaner than I think, this being medieval times and all, but I don't want to be corrected. OK?
Image description: narrow street with many red-brick town houses on both side of the street as far as the eye can see
Image description: more red brick houses this time with trees
For the curious, the University of Leuven has bought the whole beguinage, and today mostly professors and students live there.
This entry was originally posted at http://forestgreen.dreamwidth.org/109503.html, where it has
comments.