This past weekend I had tickets for a couple of tours in and
around Leuven; so that is what I will recap in this post. The first tour was
for Park Abbey and the other was M Museum Leuven. Of course, for good
measure, I’ll show a little pre-trip to the Sunday market in Heverlee called Chocoladebroodje.
A beautiful view of Leuven from the roof of M Museum.
The Sunday market in Heverlee was honestly more of the same
– many of the same vendors and products – but I have no complaints, because I
love these weekend markets in general. The novelty definitely hasn’t worn off
and I’m not sure it will, even after 5 months.
I didn’t buy much this time around mainly because I knew I’d
be hauling my backpack around well into the evening – and flattened bread isn’t
happy bread. I did, however, treat myself to a freshly brewed coffee that
tasted absolutely delicious (accompanied by a pastry that didn’t live long
enough for a photo). You can really tell the difference between good coffee and
great coffee when you finally have some to compare. I’ll definitely be back to
buy my own grounds for brewing at my dorm.
Though I didn’t buy any (*gasp*), I had to take a picture –
because heart waffles.
The first tour began about as great as it ended, which
wasn’t great. There was some miscommunication between the orientation
coordinators and the tour guides, so the guides were a good 45 minutes late.
The area, Park Abbey, we were to be shown looked super cool on a map and the
guides were very thorough – but that was also the main issue. Our group stood staring,
for a good 15 minutes, at a map of the Abbey while the guide talked and talked
in front of it (I wanted to get on to the real Abbey…). There was going to be a
time crunch getting from the Park Abbey to M Museum regardless, but now that we
had begun late and the guides were
very chatty I didn’t get to finish off the Abbey tour.
I did manage to take some pretty photos of a distant church
while the group made its way toward the main attraction (which, again, I did
not end up seeing). I do plan to go back on my own time when the weather is nicer and time isn't rushed to take some proper photos. It was much colder than it looks.
The main attraction for me was seeing a swan. I was
actually very excited about this.
Majestic.
Some cute, colourful little buildings on the way to M
Museum.
Here’s another fancy schmancy university building; I
actually happened to have a class inside the following school week.
Entrance to M Museum.
The highlight of the day overall for me was definitely M
Museum. Not only because it kept me out of the cold wind, but also because
there was a great range of exhibits.
The museum tour was arranged with the oldest works first and
moved along in a chronological way. The first exhibits we saw were the
permanent, and oldest, collections – which are mostly, if not completely, based
upon the Bible.
These carvings are made of solid alabaster and tell the
story of the Bible starting from the bottom left and moving left to right from
there. The first stone actually depicts the birth of Mary (mother of Jesus) –
which isn’t told in the Bible.
These wooden carvings were repainted in a later century than
the one in which they were created, and show how Jewish burials happened back
in the day. Women, never men, would wrap the corpse because touching a dead
body was seen as impure (the two guys at the end aren’t touching the body, only
getting as close as possible). Our guide joked about how this tradition kept
consistent with all other sexist customs of the time.
Another Bible-based exhibit, but with paintings instead of
sculptures and carvings.
This bronze fountain was used for wine at extravagant
parties – and could still function today if properly hooked up.
Lastly, we moved on to the temporary modern art exhibits.
The featured artist at this time is Sarah Morris, originally from New York; I
believe her work will be up until the end of February. I’ve never been to a
modern art exhibit in person, so this was a new experience that I really
enjoyed.
Modern art exhibits seem to dedicate entire massive, white,
concrete rooms to maybe two or three paintings – makes for clean photographs,
though.
The walls in the room pictured below with a view of Leuven were painted by
Sarah herself and will be painted over with white when her exhibit is moved (a
shame). The guide told us how the grey and black were meant to represent the
rooftops of Leuven and that the salmon pink was used because of how on-trend
it was at the time of painting. This exact piece of art will never be seen again after it's painted over.
The final exhibit before exiting features another modern
artist. For some reason a couple of the pieces reminded me of blue painters
tape.
A fun side stop that wasn’t included during the museum tour (I
went back afterward) was a cute little room with retro furniture and items.
This area is meant to be interactive and houses a bunch of old-school books,
records, toys, etc. for guests to hold and experience.
The shelf on the left was full of old items such as roller
skates, figurines, and pictures.
I enjoyed flipping through what looked like the journal of
someone who had fantastic penmnship. Taped onto the pages of this particular
entry are old postcards from the city of Brugge.
And here’s me being a tourist on the museum rooftop.
That about sums up the most notable pieces of my (previous)
weekend. It would probably be more accurate to call my blog Alexandra Weekly or
even Alexandra Biweekly, but I’m doing my best to post worthwhile updates somewhat
in accordance with when they happen. This post was a bit slow in the making –
but I hope you enjoyed!
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