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.
A 405 km round trip from Charleroi - roughly 6 h 01 in the saddle. The stops in between: Beffroi de Namur, Sint-Germanuskerk met Stadstoren, Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto and The Great Spa Towns of Europe. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 65 km this is Belgian Ardennes Scenic Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Charleroi has a reputation, unfairly earned or not, as one of the grittiest cities in Belgium, and its belfry is a fine reason to look again. Rising from the town hall on the Place Charles II, the belfry was built in the 1930s in an elegant Art Deco style, replacing an older tower, and it is one of the belfries of Belgium and France listed by UNESCO. Its slender shape, topped with a dome and carillon, is a symbol of the city's pride and resilience, and inside, the town hall has a sumptuous Art Deco interior.
Read the complete Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville de Charleroi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville de Charleroi is where the day begins. Next is Beffroi de Namur.
The belfry of Namur is a stout, round tower with a bulbous slate roof, not at all the slender Gothic spire people imagine when they hear the word. It started life in the fourteenth century as part of the town walls, the Tour Saint-Jacques, and later became the belfry, holding the bell that rang the hours and the curfew. It is one of the many towers in the World Heritage Site of the Belfries of Belgium and France.
Read the complete Beffroi de Namur write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi de Namur comes up about 37 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sint-Germanuskerk met Stadstoren.
Tienen means sugar to most Belgians. The town in the east of Flemish Brabant has been the home of Belgium's largest sugar refinery since the nineteenth century, and the smell of sugar beet being processed hangs over the town in autumn during the campaign, when trucks loaded with beets roll in from the surrounding fields. The Sint-Germanuskerk, the church of Saint Germanus, with its massive tower serving as the town's belfry, stands near the huge Grote Markt, one of the largest market squares in Belgium, and it is part of the UNESCO listing of the belfries of Belgium and France. The tower, a mix of Romanesque and Gothic, has a carillon whose bells ring out over the town.
Read the complete Sint-Germanuskerk met Stadstoren write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 87 km into the recorded legs you reach Sint-Germanuskerk met Stadstoren. Next is Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto.
Tongeren likes to remind you that it is the oldest town in Belgium, and it has a strong claim. The Romans founded a settlement here, Atuatuca Tungrorum, on the road between Cologne and Bavay, and the remains of its walls can still be seen around the town. Before that, the area was home to the Eburones, a Celtic tribe whose chieftain Ambiorix famously ambushed and destroyed a Roman legion in 54 BC. His statue, a heroic nineteenth-century figure with a winged helmet and a magnificent moustache, stands in the main square, the Grote Markt.
Read the complete Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto, 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 201 km, about halfway. Next is back through Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto comes up about 267 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Sint-Germanuskerk met Stadstoren.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sint-Germanuskerk met Stadstoren write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 317 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Sint-Germanuskerk met Stadstoren. Next is back through Beffroi de Namur.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de Namur write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Beffroi de Namur, late in the day. Next is Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville de Charleroi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville de Charleroi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 405 km.
Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville de Charleroi → Beffroi de Namur is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de Namur → Sint-Germanuskerk met Stadstoren is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sint-Germanuskerk met Stadstoren → Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto → The Great Spa Towns of Europe is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Great Spa Towns of Europe → back through Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto is 65 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto → back through Sint-Germanuskerk met Stadstoren is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sint-Germanuskerk met Stadstoren → back through Beffroi de Namur is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beffroi de Namur → Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville de Charleroi is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.