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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 270 km round trip from Mechelen - roughly 4 h 39 in the saddle. On the way it passes Béguinage de Hoogstraten, Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout and back through Béguinage de Hoogstraten. It crosses from Belgium into Netherlands - carry ID and check the toll rules. The line favours views over speed.
The Grote Markt of Mechelen is one of the grandest squares in Belgium, and on its eastern side stands the old cloth hall with its belfry, a building with a curious history. The hall was built in the fourteenth century, when Mechelen was a rich cloth-making town, and the belfry was planned to be a tall tower, but it was never finished. Its stump was eventually given a pointed roof, and later a sixteenth-century extension in the Renaissance style was begun to house the Great Council of the Netherlands, but that too remained unfinished. The belfry is part of the UNESCO listing of the belfries of Belgium and France.
Read the complete Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi is where the day begins. Next is Béguinage de Hoogstraten.
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.
Read the complete Béguinage de Hoogstraten write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Béguinage de Hoogstraten comes up about 62 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout.
Nineteen windmills stand in two rows along the canals at Kinderdijk, their sails turning slowly against the wide Dutch sky, and it is one of the most iconic sights in the Netherlands. They were built in the eighteenth century to pump water out of the Alblasserwaard, a low-lying polder between the rivers Lek and Noord, which would otherwise be flooded. Each mill lifted water from a lower canal to a higher one, and from there it was let out into the river. Over time steam, diesel and electric pumping stations took over the job, and the most recent ones still keep the polder dry today. The mill network was listed by UNESCO in 1997.
Read the complete Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 135 km into the recorded legs you reach Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout. Next is back through Béguinage de Hoogstraten.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Béguinage de Hoogstraten write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Béguinage de Hoogstraten, late in the day. Next is Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi. That is the ride.
Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi → Béguinage de Hoogstraten is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Béguinage de Hoogstraten → Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout → back through Béguinage de Hoogstraten is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Béguinage de Hoogstraten → Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.