Aarschot, Belgium

Open voor all proposals: days, weekends, weeks.. all year long.
Apartment with small garden for max 4 persons (2 bedrooms) at 100m from the trainstation!

Welcome in Flanders, Belgium! (You can communicate with us in: Nederlands, english, français, deutsch). We are Ilja and Karen, Alexander (18) and Andreas (16). We did exchanges with The Basque Country in France, Paris, Finland, Tenerife, Munich, Barcelona and Iceland. Wir sprechen auch Deutsch, on parle aussi le français...

Why choosing Belgium?
1 Everything very close to you; Western Europe, lake, sea, nature, great gastronomy, museum, culture, shopping, sports,..
2 Car and public transport all around
3 Often great temperatures in summertime
4 Van Eyck, Rubens, Jacques Brel, Magritte, Adolphe Sax, Flemish Primitives, all the medieval monuments,.... So much culture in one spot: Flanders.

We live close to Brussels and Antwerp, in Flanders: within 2 hours from Germany (Köln, Aachen,..), France (Paris), The Netherlands (Amsterdam, Rotterdam), Great Britain (London). At 1,5h from the North Sea and in the south, the mountains. Very good public transport but also car exchange possible. You can travel around Flanders, The Netherlands and France with trains easily. Belgian Airports Brussels and Brussels South are nearby. Summer temperature in Belgium is often around 25 °C.

The appartment is in the street of a very good train station! So in 30 mins you are in Brussels (capital of Europe) (30'), Ghent (1h), Bruges (Unesco) (1h30'), Antwerp (40'), and Leuven (12'). If you want, you can do everything by train. The highway is one street away so with my car you arrive in all these cities in just... one hour or less!

All shops and supermarkets are within walking distance. The nearby river Demer (1 min) is ideal for biking and walking because it's a very long track without cars. You can make a stop alongside this river to visit cities like Mechelen, there are restaurants, pubs, ice-cream bars,... Have a look at the pictures and our map. Community pool: 2km and a bigger one: 10km.

Our apartment lies in Aarschot, a small cosy town near Brussels, Leuven.... Just step 100m to the train station where you have DIRECT LINES to all the cities.

In summertime, we often go to the nearby lake with a beach in only 10 minutes! The water quality is very good and the lake is safe and guarded. Of course you can also enjoy the beach (1h45' driving) where you can swim and go windsurf.
Several playgrounds, new athletics track, parks, tennis, golf (2 beautiful golf courts nearby), squash, wall climbing, surf and sailing (1,5h) thermae sauna and 3 swimming pools (1 open air) are nearby. A zoo lies within cycling distance. Our region is also excellent for its nature so walking and biking in forests and along the river is often seen here. At the end of june/begin of july, you can experience the ambience of the best rockfestival of the world: Rock Werchter (only 5 min. driving).

Finally, Belgium is of course well known for its chocolates and waffles. You won't resist the very good Belgian kitchen in general and more specific the famous french fries with one of Belgiums famous beers (1000 types!) like the Trappists. Maybe you like Jacques Brel (museum Brussels), Adolphe Sax (museum Dinant), Permeke (museum Jabbeke), Damiaan (museum Tremelo), Jan De Kock (contemporary art), Luc Tuymans (painter), René Magritte (museum Brussels)....Beguinage of Aarschot and Leuven...

Our location is an ideal spot to start your citytrip to Brussels, Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, Paris (3h30'), Amsterdam (2h15'), Rotterdam (1h40'), Köln (2h) or London (4h30')... But also Trier, Aachen, Düsseldorf,... Brussels is the capital of Europe and Belgium is the center of Western Europe!

10 things you should do here:

1 Visit Leuven, a very beautiful city with great shopping opportunities and of course Brussels
2 Drink a famous belgian Trappist beer like Chimay, Orval, Westmalle,... in the brewery.
3 Visit the nearby moated castle of Horst and walk along the vineyards just 10 min. from us.
4 Plan a daytrip to Bruges, Unesco protected and most beautiful city of Belgium!
5 Eat mussels with french fries at the adresses we give you
6 Go see the Lam Gods painting (Van Eyck) or modern museums like the SMAK (Ghent) or the MAS (Antwerp)
7 Have fun with the bonobo primates at het Planckendael Zoo or the Antwerp Zoo
8 Relax in the orient styled thermae of Grimbergen with plenty of baths and sauna's
9 Don't miss the Atomium in Brussels
10 Go to the beach at De Haan, a famous village in strictly conserved Normandian style

I work as psychotherapist (48), my wife Karen (43) is a civil servant and my kids Andreas and Alexander are 16 and 18 years old. We don't smoke and have no pets. Note that we like clean houses! We will respect your house very well and clean it very good. We expect the same from our intervac friends. We are looking forward to exchange homes with you!

http://www.leuven.be/en/tourism/index.jsp
http://www.planckendael.be/
http://www.visitdehaan.be
http://atomium.be/?lang=nl
http://visitbruges.be/nl/index.php/
http://www.herita.be/erfgoedbeleving/erfgoedsite/kasteel-van-horst-holsbeek
http://www.trappistwestmalle.be/
http://www.tremelo.be//Damiaanmuseum
Thermae Grimbergen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlklywBNOGE