ICAME 33 :: Travel Information

New section at the bottom of this page: "Staying on?"

A note on "Leuven"

As you may know, Belgium is linguistically and politically a complicated country, and in a small way travelling to Leuven reflects the country's permanent state of identity crisis. The city you will be travelling to is called "Leuven" in Dutch, and "Louvain" in French; within the English-speaking world the French name is often used. There is a danger of confusion with another city, called Louvain-la-Neuve (French for "the new Leuven"), located around 30 km southeast of Leuven, in the French-speaking part of Belgium. When selecting a train or GPS destination, make sure to opt for Leuven, not Louvain-la-Neuve or even Louvain, to avoid ending up in the wrong city altogether.

Arrival by plane

Brussels Airport

Most people travelling by plane will arrive at Brussels Airport, where a train station is situated below ground level (level -1). Direct trains leave for Leuven twice per hour on weekdays with a 13 or 16 minute travel time; the standard (2nd class) fare is EUR 5.70. The train to board will have either Leuven or Landen as its final destination. You can look up train timetables and itineraries, entering 'Brussel Nat Luchthaven' and 'Leuven' as departure and arrival cities, from the Belgian Railways site. From Leuven train station, you can take a taxi to wherever you will be going first on your arrival -- presumably your hotel. The fare will probably be around 10 euros.

If you prefer to take a taxi from Brussels Airport directly to your hotel in Leuven, expect a rather steep fare, probably not less than 70 euros (1 euro equals roughly 1.4 USD, 0.87 GBP, 9.2 CNY, or 115 JPY).

Brussels South Charleroi Airport

A number of low-cost carriers fly to a regional airport in Charleroi, around 46 km south of Brussels. Getting to Leuven from Charleroi is less straightforward:

• One option is to take a local bus into the Charleroi Sud train station (travel time around 20 minutes), from where you can take a train to Leuven (travel time between 1h20min and 1h35min); you will have to change trains once (look up timetables and itineraries from the Belgian railways website, entering 'Charleroi Sud' and 'Leuven' as departure and arrival cities; the standard ticket fare is EUR 8.70).
• Another option is to take the Brussels City Shuttle which leaves every thirty minutes and takes you to Brussels Midi train station in around an hour; the fare is EUR 13 one-way or EUR 22 for a return ticket. From Brussels Midi you can get a direct train to Leuven (travel time usually around 26 minutes, final destination of trains stopping at Leuven are usually Liège, Eupen, Tongeren, Genk or indeed Leuven; the standard ticket fare is EUR 4.80). You can look up timetables and itineraries from the Belgian railways website, entering 'Bruxelles-Midi' and 'Leuven' as departure and arrival cities.

From Leuven train station, you can take a taxi to wherever you will be going first on your arrival -- presumably your hotel. The fare will probably around 10 euros.

Arrival by train

Brussels is well-connected to important cities in all of Belgium's neighbouring countries, with high-speed links to such destinations as London (under 2h), Paris (1h22min), Amsterdam (under 2h) and Cologne (1h47min). The B-Europe website has all the details.

International trains arrive at Brussels Midi train station, from where you can get a direct train to Leuven (the travel time is usually around 26 minutes; final destination of trains stopping at Leuven are usually Liège, Eupen, Tongeren, Genk or indeed Leuven; the standard ticket fare is EUR 4.80). You can look up timetables and itineraries from the Belgian railways website, entering 'Bruxelles-Midi' and 'Leuven' as departure and arrival cities.

From Leuven train station, you can take a taxi to wherever you will be going first on your arrival -- presumably your hotel. The fare will probably around 10 euros.

Arrival by car

Leuven is situated on the axis Oostende-Brussel-Leuven-Liège-Köln, at the junction of two important European motorways: E40 and E314. Parking space in the city centre is at a premium; your best option is to contact your hotel directly and arrange a parking space with them.

Come rain or shine

If you're looking for local weather forecasts, the internet has all the answers.

Staying on?

Belgium boasts a number of historical cities well worth visiting aside from Leuven and Namur including, but not limited to, Antwerp, Bruges, Brussels, Dinant, Ghent, Liège, Mechelen, Ypres. A useful starting point for explorations might be the WikiTravel section on Belgian cities; we have also put up some information on a few of these (plus Waterloo, the famous historic site).

Belgium is always teeming with cultural activity, and there are far more potentially interesting museums, exhibitions, concert halls and the like than we can reasonably list here: if you are interested in a particular type of visit, feel free to ask a member of the organising team during the conference and we will try to find relevant information. Our own, necessarily limited, selection of interesting tips follows immediately below:

Exhibitions at or associated with the University of Leuven

Ex cathedra: exhibition on the theme of student course notes from the 16th to 18th century in the Central Library of Leuven (Ladeuzeplein); free entrance; open Mon-Thurs 9 am - 20 pm, Fri 9 am-5 pm, Sat 10 am- 1 pm (website in Dutch only)

Being twelve: photo exhibition of the Documentation and Research centre for Religion, Culture and Society (KADOC) on the theme of twelve-year olds (from those making their First Communion to child soldiers); Vlamingenstraat 39 (map); free entrance; open Mon-Fri 9 am-5 pm; Sat 9 - 12.30 am (website in Dutch only)

Sagalossos City of Dreams: exhibition in the Gallo-Roman Museum in Tongeren about Sagalossos, the ancient Roman city in the Taurus mountains in Turkey, which is being excavated under the direction of Marc Waelkens of KU Leuven. According to the Lonely Planet guide of Turkey, Sagalossos “may one day rival Ephesus in splendour”. For practical information, see the website (in English).

Large-scale art happenings

Beaufort04 (Belgian Coast): the fourth edition of the Triennial of Contemporary Art by the Sea in 2012. At 30 locations, spread over the 9 coastal municipalities, works of art can be savoured in the unique biotopes in which they have been embedded.

TRACK (Ghent): a contemporary art conversation with the city of Ghent. 41 international artists were invited to conceive new works of art that are strongly rooted in the urban fabric of Ghent but link the local context with issues of global significance.

Manifesta 9 (Genk): the ninth edition of the itinerant European Biennial of Contemporary Art exhibition at the impressive site of the former Waterschei mine in Genk (Limburg).

A selection of art exhibitions currently on

Canvascollectie/Collection RTBF at Bozar (Centre for Fine Arts) Brussels (exhibition closes on 10 June). Mixing professional and amateur artists can work, as has been shown by the success of the "Canvascollectie" (a public broadcasting project) since its launch in 2008. In this third edition, the French- (involved since the 2010 edition) and German-speaking communities joined forces with the Dutch-speaking community to select from thousands of submissions presented at local contemporary arts museums across the country a group of over 250 artworks on show at Bozar. For a preview, see the online gallery. Entrance is only 2 euros; open every day except Mondays from 9 am - 6 pm with a late night opening until 9 pm on Thursdays.

Jeremy Deller, "Joy in people" at Wiels Brussels (exhibition opens on 1 June). Very interested in the cultural signs carried by slogans or inscriptions in public places, as symbols of identification and belonging, Jeremy Deller (°1966, London) borrows alternative communication methods for the production of stickers, posters, fictitious exhibitions or t-shirts with protest slogans. The exhibition incorporates almost all of Deller’s major works to date including installations, parade floats, photographs, videos, posters, banners, performance works and sound pieces. In addition, it will feature a reconstruction of Open Bedroom, the artist’s first exhibition held in his parent’s bedroom in 1993, and many other works that were never before exhibited.

Nedko Solakov, "All in order, with exceptions" at SMAK Ghent (exhibition closes on 3 June!). Nedko Solakov (°1957, Cherven Briag) is one of Bulgaria's internationally best known contemporary artists, and has been artistically active for more than thirty years. The exhibition in S.M.A.K. is the first 'retrospective' of Solakov’s work in Belgium. For this exhibition, Solakov collected documentation of all the work he created between 1980 and 2010, and gave the curators of the various institutions carte blanche to select one work for each year. These thirty works form the basis of the exhibition and in turn Solakov himself adds those typically ironic and melancholy comments that appear so often in his work, as well as distilling an extra exhibition called ‘All in (my) order, with exceptions’ from the works not included in the curator’s selection.

Arthouse cinema

For arthouse cinema in Leuven there is only one address (conveniently close to the conference venue, located within the STUK Arts Centre, Naamsestraat 96): Cinema ZED. Brussels, only a short train ride away, boasts too many cinemas to mention (Cinebel can help), but Cinematek (formerly The Film Museum) deserves special mention, and is located only a stone's throw away from Brussels Central train station (website only in Dutch and French but there's always Google Translate or the helping hands and brains of the organising team at the conference).