CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
280 km from Maastricht to Maastricht, about 4 h 25 of riding. On the way it passes Beguinage de Sint-Truiden, Stadhuis met Toren, Sint-Leonarduskerk and The Great Spa Towns of Europe. It crosses from Netherlands into Belgium - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 85 km this is Belgian Ardennes Scenic Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Maastricht sits in the thin tail of the Netherlands that squeezes between Belgium and Germany, and you feel the border pressure the moment you leave town. Within a quarter of an hour on a bike you can be in Wallonia, and Aachen is not much further east. The Maas, which the French call the Meuse, runs straight through the middle, and the name of the city is simply the Latin for crossing the river. Romans put a bridge here, and the Sint Servaasbrug, still carrying traffic in its medieval form, is often called the oldest bridge in the country.
Read the complete Maastricht write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Maastricht is where the day begins. Next is Beguinage de Sint-Truiden.
At the edge of Sint-Truiden, a market town in the fruit country of Haspengouw, a ring of low brick houses surrounds a large grassy courtyard with trees and a Gothic church in the middle. This is the béguinage, one of the Flemish béguinages listed together by UNESCO, where for centuries communities of laywomen lived devout lives of prayer and work without taking permanent vows. It is one of the largest and best preserved in the region, and it has a calm, almost village-like feel.
Read the complete Beguinage de Sint-Truiden write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beguinage de Sint-Truiden comes up about 46 km into the recorded legs. Next is Stadhuis met Toren.
Sint-Truiden's Grote Markt is one of the largest market squares in Belgium, and at its centre stands the town hall with its belfry, a tower that has watched over the town since the Middle Ages and been rebuilt and remodelled several times. The belfry, with its carillon, is part of the UNESCO listing of the Belfries of Belgium and France, inscribed in 1999 to honour these civic towers that symbolised the freedom and wealth of the medieval towns. Climb it if you can, and you will see the whole of the Haspengouw region spread out around you, a gently rolling landscape of orchards and fields.
Read the complete Stadhuis met Toren write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 48 km into the recorded legs you reach Stadhuis met Toren. Next is Sint-Leonarduskerk.
The church of Saint Leonard rises over the little town of Zoutleeuw, in the fruit-growing country east of Leuven, and it is far grander than the size of the place suggests. In the Middle Ages the town, known in French as Léau, was a prosperous trading centre on a route between Brabant and Liège, and its burghers put their money into stone. Work on the church began in the thirteenth century and went on for generations, giving a late Gothic body with a tall tower, rich sculpture and a lofty, light interior with white walls and tall windows.
Read the complete Sint-Leonarduskerk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sint-Leonarduskerk, about halfway. Next is The Great Spa Towns of Europe.
Spa is the little town in the Belgian Ardennes that gave its name to every spa in the world, and the story goes back a long way. The mineral springs here were known to the Romans, and Pliny is often cited as mentioning them, and from the sixteenth century they drew the nobility of Europe. In 1717 Peter the Great of Russia came to take the waters, and the Pouhon Pierre-le-Grand, a handsome pavilion over the main spring, is named after him. The town built a grand casino, a thermal baths building and a promenade, and a century later it became known as the Café of Europe, a place where kings, writers and intriguers rubbed shoulders.
Read the complete The Great Spa Towns of Europe write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The Great Spa Towns of Europe sits at 146 km, about halfway. Next is back through Sint-Leonarduskerk.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sint-Leonarduskerk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sint-Leonarduskerk comes up about 226 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Stadhuis met Toren.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Stadhuis met Toren write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 233 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Stadhuis met Toren. Next is back through Beguinage de Sint-Truiden.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beguinage de Sint-Truiden write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Beguinage de Sint-Truiden, late in the day. Next is Maastricht.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Maastricht write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 280 km.
Maastricht → Beguinage de Sint-Truiden is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Stadhuis met Toren → Sint-Leonarduskerk is 7 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sint-Leonarduskerk → The Great Spa Towns of Europe is 85 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
The Great Spa Towns of Europe → back through Sint-Leonarduskerk is 86 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Sint-Leonarduskerk → back through Stadhuis met Toren is 7 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beguinage de Sint-Truiden → Maastricht is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.