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 302 km round trip from Menen - roughly 4 h 55 in the saddle. It goes by way of \Halletoren\ ou Belfort, Stadhuis met Belfort, Béguinage de Sint-Amandsberg / Gent and Maison Guiete. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
British soldiers marching to the front in the First World War left Ypres by the road that led east towards Menen, and the gate they passed through became the Menin Gate, now a memorial bearing the names of more than fifty thousand soldiers with no known grave. Menen itself, about twenty kilometres from Ypres, sits right on the French border, on the river Leie, which the French call the Lys, and its town hall and belfry, standing on the market square, are part of the UNESCO listing of the belfries of Belgium and France. The belfry, like much of the town, was damaged in the war and rebuilt, and it remains the proud symbol of the town's civic history.
Read the complete Belfort en Stadhuis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Belfort en Stadhuis is where the day begins. Next is \Halletoren\ ou Belfort.
Tielt is a working town in the heart of West Flanders, a place of farmers' markets, textile history and flat roads, and its belfry rises above the market square like a stubborn finger pointing at the clouds. The Halletoren, the hall tower, stands on top of the old cloth hall, the building where merchants once inspected and traded woollen cloth, the source of Flanders' wealth in the Middle Ages. The belfry is one of the group of Belgian and French belfries that UNESCO listed together, symbols of the civic freedom that the cities of Flanders won from their lords, where the town charters were kept and the bells rang to call citizens to arms or to work.
Read the complete \Halletoren\ ou Belfort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
\Halletoren\ ou Belfort comes up about 36 km into the recorded legs. Next is Stadhuis met Belfort.
Oudenaarde's town hall looks like something carved from lace. Built in the early sixteenth century in the late Gothic style, it has a facade covered with pointed arches, niches and statues, and a slender belfry topped with a gilded crown on which stands a small knight known locally as Hanske de Krijger, Little John the Warrior. The building is one of the finest of its kind in Flanders, and it is listed by UNESCO among the belfries of Belgium and France. Inside, there are displays of the tapestries for which Oudenaarde was famous across Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, especially its verdures, woven scenes of forests and greenery.
Read the complete Stadhuis met Belfort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 66 km into the recorded legs you reach Stadhuis met Belfort. Next is Béguinage de Sint-Amandsberg / Gent.
The Great Béguinage of Sint-Amandsberg looks like a small walled town of its own, tucked into a residential suburb just east of the centre of Ghent. When the city expanded in the 1870s and the old béguinage of St Elisabeth was in the way, the beguines, lay religious women who lived in community without taking permanent vows, moved here to a new complex of neo-Gothic houses, convents and a church, all laid out around streets, squares and gardens behind a wall and gate. The move was funded by the Duke of Arenberg, and the whole place was finished in just a few years. It is one of the thirteen Flemish Béguinages on the UNESCO list since 1998, and although the beguines are gone, the houses are still lived in, and the atmosphere is calm and quiet.
Read the complete Béguinage de Sint-Amandsberg / Gent write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Béguinage de Sint-Amandsberg / Gent, about halfway. Next is Maison Guiete.
In a leafy residential street in the southern suburbs of Antwerp, there is a white house that looks as if it has walked in from a different century. The Maison Guiette, as it is usually spelled, was designed by Le Corbusier in 1926 for the painter René Guiette, and it was his first building in Belgium. Since 2016 it has been one of the sites in the UNESCO listing of Le Corbusier's architectural work, alongside the Villa Savoye, the Unité d'Habitation in Marseille and buildings on several continents.
Read the complete Maison Guiete write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Maison Guiete sits at 170 km, about halfway. Next is back through Béguinage de Sint-Amandsberg / Gent.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Béguinage de Sint-Amandsberg / Gent write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Béguinage de Sint-Amandsberg / Gent comes up about 205 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Stadhuis met Belfort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Stadhuis met Belfort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 236 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Stadhuis met Belfort. Next is back through \Halletoren\ ou Belfort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete \Halletoren\ ou Belfort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through \Halletoren\ ou Belfort, late in the day. Next is Belfort en Stadhuis.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Belfort en Stadhuis write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 302 km.
Belfort en Stadhuis → \Halletoren\ ou Belfort is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
\Halletoren\ ou Belfort → Stadhuis met Belfort is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Stadhuis met Belfort → Béguinage de Sint-Amandsberg / Gent is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Béguinage de Sint-Amandsberg / Gent → Maison Guiete is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Maison Guiete → back through Béguinage de Sint-Amandsberg / Gent is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Béguinage de Sint-Amandsberg / Gent → back through Stadhuis met Belfort is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Stadhuis met Belfort → back through \Halletoren\ ou Belfort is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through \Halletoren\ ou Belfort → Belfort en Stadhuis is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.