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.
164 km from Diest to Diest, about 3 h 01 of riding. It goes by way of Beguinage de Sint-Truiden, Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto, Blegny-Mine and back through Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto. 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 28 km this is Belgian Ardennes Scenic Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Diest has one of the largest béguinages in Flanders, a walled town within the town, with its own streets, gates, church and some ninety houses. The béguines were laywomen who lived a religious life without taking permanent vows, earning their own living and sharing a community, and their béguinages flourished in the Low Countries from the thirteenth century onward. The Flemish béguinages are listed together by UNESCO. In Diest, the béguinage has been restored with care, and its cobbled streets, whitewashed houses and quiet gardens feel worlds away from the traffic outside.
Read the complete Béguinage de Diest write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Béguinage de Diest 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 28 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 54 km into the recorded legs you reach Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto. 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, 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 sits at 110 km, about halfway. 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 comes up about 136 km into the recorded legs. Next is Béguinage de Diest.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Béguinage de Diest write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Béguinage de Diest closes the day.
Béguinage de Diest → Beguinage de Sint-Truiden is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beguinage de Sint-Truiden → Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto → Blegny-Mine is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Blegny-Mine → back through Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto → back through Beguinage de Sint-Truiden is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beguinage de Sint-Truiden → Béguinage de Diest is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.