Hoegaarden is a small and very cosy village. It has a magnificent park (the "Toontuinen" or "Showgardens" ) which is famous throughout the country and a very lovely countryside for walking and cycling. A few miles to the south you can find the pitoresque small villages of the French speaking part of the country. The nearby markettown of Tienen has a very friendly atmosphere and very cosy pubs, restaurants and shops and a few very nice historical buildings. In one of them, in which the musical academy ad library are situated, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his father Leopold spent one night during their first journey through Europe in the year 1763. In one of his letters Leopold describes the market place of Tienen as the most beautiful he had ever seen and...more famous than Salzburg. We don't know if he had drunk a lot of beer from Hoegarden when he wrote this quote, but anyhow, I hope my pictures will make it possible for you to judge. The old and very famous university town of Leuven is at a distance of about 25 kilmometers and Brussels, the capital of Europe is at about the same distance. Since Belgium is but a small country you can easily reach famous tows such as Antwerpen, Brugge, Gent, Liège, Namur in about one hour drive by car or train. From spring untill late autumn art festivals with an international reputation (the "Festival Van Vlaanderen" and "Festival de Wallonie") offer you a wide range of musical entertainment on a very high level and a lot of other festivals cover several types of music, dance and theatre.