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 Sint-Truiden it runs 186 km to Sint-Truiden; allow about 3 h of riding. The stops in between: Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto, Blegny-Mine, The Great Spa Towns of Europe and back through Blegny-Mine. 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 36 km this is Belgian Ardennes Scenic Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 22 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 58 km into the recorded legs you reach Blegny-Mine. 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, 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 sits at 116 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 165 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Beguinage de Sint-Truiden closes the day.
Beguinage de Sint-Truiden → Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto → Blegny-Mine is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Blegny-Mine → The Great Spa Towns of Europe is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The Great Spa Towns of Europe → back through Blegny-Mine is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Blegny-Mine → back through Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto → Beguinage de Sint-Truiden is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.