A béguinage is one of the most peaceful places in the Low Countries: a walled enclosure of small houses around a green courtyard and a church, built in the Middle Ages for béguines, women who lived a religious life of prayer and work without taking permanent vows. They could own property, leave if they wished and support themselves by weaving, teaching or nursing, which made the béguinages a unique form of female independence in medieval Europe. The béguinage at Hoogstraten, in the north of Antwerp province near the Dutch border, is one of thirteen Flemish béguinages on the World Heritage list, and it is a quiet, charming place, with whitewashed houses, a baroque church and a garden where time seems to slow.
Hoogstraten itself is a pleasant small town with a long, wide main street lined with lime trees and dominated by the tower of St Catherine's church, one of the tallest church towers in Belgium at over a hundred metres. The original tower was blown up by German troops in 1944 and rebuilt after the war in its original style. The town is famous in Belgium for its strawberries, grown in greenhouses and sold at a large auction; Hoogstraten strawberries are considered among the best in the country.
The landscape is the Kempen, a flat region of heaths, pine woods, sandy soils and small farms, with nature reserves like the Strijbeekse Heide on the Dutch border. Just across the border, the town of Baarle is a geographic curiosity, with Belgian enclaves within the Netherlands and Dutch enclaves within the Belgian enclaves; borders run through houses and shops.
The riding is flat and easy, along quiet country roads through woods and farmland, with cycle paths separated from the road in most places. There are no real hills, but the scenery is pleasant, especially in late spring and summer when the heath flowers. Speed limits are strictly enforced, with average speed cameras on some roads in Flanders. Hoogstraten, a town of about eighteen thousand people, has fuel, shops, cafes and restaurants; the main street is a good place to stop. In early summer, try the strawberries with cream, and finish with a local beer; the Trappist abbey of Westmalle, famous for its beers, is a short ride to the southwest.