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.
From Aachen it runs 200 km to Aachen; allow about 3 h 24 of riding. It goes by way of Blegny-Mine, Béguinage de Tongeren, Beguinage de Sint-Truiden and back through Béguinage de Tongeren. It crosses from Germany into Belgium - carry ID and check the toll rules.
37 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it — speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
For about 34 km this is Belgian Ardennes Scenic Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Charlemagne chose Aachen for its hot springs, and the springs still bubble up under the old town, smelling faintly of sulphur at the fountains where they surface. Around the end of the eighth century he built a palace here and, at its heart, a chapel: an octagon under a dome, ringed by a sixteen-sided ambulatory, designed by Odo of Metz with columns and marble shipped from Ravenna and Rome. That chapel is the core of Aachen Cathedral, and in 1978 it became the first site in Germany on the World Heritage list.
Read the complete Aachen Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Aachen Cathedral is where the day begins. Next is Blegny-Mine.
Blegny-Mine is one of the few places in Europe where you can still go down a real coal mine in the lift cage, with former miners as your guides. The mine, in the Pays de Herve northeast of Liège, closed in 1980, and it was soon turned into a museum, with guided tours that take you down to galleries tens of metres underground, where you can see the machinery, the narrow seams and the conditions in which miners worked. In 2012, it was listed by UNESCO as one of the four Major Mining Sites of Wallonia, along with Grand-Hornu, Bois-du-Luc and Bois du Cazier. It is a powerful reminder of how coal built the industrial wealth of Belgium, and at what cost.
Read the complete Blegny-Mine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Blegny-Mine comes up about 41 km into the recorded legs. Next is Béguinage de Tongeren.
Tongeren calls itself the oldest town in Belgium, and it has a Roman name, a Gallic hero and a weekly antiques market to back up the claim. Under the Romans it was Atuatuca Tungrorum, and in the main square stands a romantic nineteenth-century statue of Ambiorix, the chieftain who gave Julius Caesar a very bad winter. A few minutes' walk from all that pomp lies the béguinage, a quiet quarter of low brick houses, cobbled lanes and small gardens that once housed communities of beguines, religious women who lived a semi-independent life without taking the full vows of nuns.
Read the complete Béguinage de Tongeren write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 75 km into the recorded legs you reach Béguinage de Tongeren. 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, about halfway. Next is back through Béguinage de Tongeren.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Béguinage de Tongeren write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Béguinage de Tongeren sits at 122 km, about halfway. Next is back through Blegny-Mine.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Blegny-Mine write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Blegny-Mine comes up about 155 km into the recorded legs. Next is Aachen Cathedral.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Aachen Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Aachen Cathedral closes the day.
Aachen Cathedral → Blegny-Mine is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Blegny-Mine → Béguinage de Tongeren is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Béguinage de Tongeren → Beguinage de Sint-Truiden is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beguinage de Sint-Truiden → back through Béguinage de Tongeren is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Béguinage de Tongeren → back through Blegny-Mine is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Blegny-Mine → Aachen Cathedral is 43 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.