Leuven - Thursday night

Diestsestraat pedestrian street led Simon & me directly from Leuven station to De Fiere Margriet, Margarethaplein 11, in the shadow of St Peter's church, a distance of about 1km.

 We had arrived earlier in Leuven on Thursday 22 March 2018 on an Inter City train from Brussels Midi (fare 5.50 euro) after transferring from a Eurostar train from London St Pancras International.

Our table near the window gave good views of the bar and staircase to first floor. This is a bar full of character but with a limited choice of draft beers.

Opting for a bottled beer from the extensive beer menu, my first choice of a beer from local brewery Hof ten Dormaal was unavailable. (We would make up for this by visiting the brewery's taproom on Saturday.)

Remembered from my last Belgian trip, a beer by The Musketeers Brewery, the strong and flavourful Troubadour Magma was a splendid second choice. A variety of music from 1967 was playing during our visit including: Moody Blues 'Nights in White Satin'; The Archies 'Sugar Sugar' and Tom Jones 'Green, green grass of home'.

Leuven's Grote Markt (St Peter's on right)

It was twilight when we emerged and set off for a wander around to get our bearings and succeeded in losing them but did pass an interesting statue en route.

 This depicts Pieter de Somer, the first lay Rector of Leuven University (1966), a biologist and founder of the Rega Institute.

Simon was relieved when we finally reached a decent bar - Metafoor.at Parijsstraat 34.

A good selection of draft beers included Boon Kriek reasonably priced at 3.20 euro per glass. With good music like the Rolling Stones 'Sympathy for the Devil' and Carly Simon's 'You're so vain' playing, this would be a bar to return to (on Saturday). We noticed that customers could bring in takeaway food and eat it in the bar as no food was served.

With appetites aroused we headed to Ah! Quy, a Vietnamese cafe for a cheap meal.

Afterwards, Simon was keen to visit The Capital, a bar remembered from a previous visit. Inside it was busy but we found a table near the entrance. The background sounds here were mainly from conversations as no music was playing.

My first beer here was Luvanium Blond brewed by Brouwhuys De Vaart whose brewery is actually closer to Mechelen than to Leuven. However, with this brand name the beer is widely available in Leuven, which has a huge student population.

Simon and Tim at The Capital, Leuven

We took each other's photos (spliced together above). When I advised Simon that the stone wall was actually wallpaper rather than a genuine finish he was disappointed by his own misapprehension.

We made a small dent in the impressive beer menu which ran to many pages.

The draft tap list was also impressive including Troubadour Magma and Kasteel Rouge, one of Simon's favourites.

Many of the bottled beers are stored on wooden shelves in the cellar which is visible through glass floor panels.

My favourite beer of the night came in a bottle - Hop-a-Billy, a 6% ABV hoppy saison brewed by 't Hofbrouwerijke of Beerzel, between Leuven and Antwerp.

Jack's Precious IPA from the Belgian Legends series of The Musketeers Brewery was another good beer from the list of bottles. 

On leaving, we walked back to Leuven station, passing underneath and continuing on to Cafe PaRaDoX, a sports bar in Kessel-Lo celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Although dimly lit we were still able to read the special beers list. The Gouden Carolus Tripel was the obvious choice for me to finish up with on my first night in Leuven while Golden Earring's 'Radar Love' (1973) played in the background.