'A cart rattling on the boulders'... Until the 1950s, Staf Christens (1909-1984) collected milk daily by horse and cart in Haasrode. Before dawn, the peasants had milked their cows and put the milk jug at the door. She was picked up door to door and transported to Leuven; on the way back the cart was loaded with fodder from 'De Stordeur'. Reine brought biscuits from the bakers in the city from the day before. The children of the village were happy to see them come back. Follow Staf and Reine on their daily round.
The route goes at the extreme point to the Bremberg and the 'trou d'Haesrode', the 'hole of Haasrode'. Village names ending in –red refer to the clearing of forest land. In this case, the village of Haasrode was created in the 16th century by clearing part of the 'Mollendaalbos'. This was the village of the hermits, peasants and cobblers. Godliness and legends, plagues of hunger and war, work ethic and commercial spirit put this rural place in the shadow of Leuven on the map.