The word spa comes from this town, and that is the kind of claim that most places make and few can prove. Here it happens to be true: Spa, in the Ardennes foothills of eastern Belgium, has been a place for taking the waters since the Romans, who are said to have noted its iron-rich springs, and from the sixteenth century it was a fashionable resort. Visitors have included the Russian emperor Peter the Great, who came in 1717 to cure his stomach, and the town's central spring, the Pouhon Pierre-le-Grand, is named after him. The bottled water that bears the town's name is sold worldwide, and the little town has a quiet, slightly faded charm, with grand hotels, a thermal baths complex on the hill and a casino.
It is also a motorcyclist's town, because of the nearby circuit of Spa-Francorchamps, a few minutes away, which hosts the Belgian Grand Prix and a famous round of the motorbike calendar, along with a road network that has been a favourite of riders for generations. The Eau Rouge corner and the Raidillon climb are some of the most famous in racing, and the public roads around the circuit are fast, wooded and fun. Stavelot, with its old abbey, lies a few kilometres to the east.
From Spa, the road climbs on to the High Fens, the Hautes Fagnes, a high plateau of peat bog, heather and stunted spruce that is the wildest landscape in Belgium. Boardwalks cross the wet ground, mists collect in the hollows and the wind is often sharp. On a clear day, the views over the moor are remarkable, and in autumn the colours go gold and rust. The road continues across the German border into the Eifel, where the old walled town of Monschau, with its half-timbered houses along the Rur river, is worth a stop.
Spa is a town of about eleven thousand people, with several fuel stations, bakeries, and restaurants, and Theux, a few kilometres away, has the same. This makes it a convenient place to fill up before the high country. Check the weather, because the Fens can be cold and wet even in June, and fog on the plateau is common in autumn.