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 165 km round trip from Blégny - roughly 3 h 03 in the saddle. On the way it passes Béguinage de Tongeren, Beguinage de Sint-Truiden, Béguinage de Diest and back through Beguinage de Sint-Truiden. 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 34 km this is Belgian Ardennes Scenic Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Béguinage de Tongeren.
Tongeren calls itself the oldest town in Belgium, and it has a Roman name, a Gallic hero and a weekly antiques market to back up the claim. Under the Romans it was Atuatuca Tungrorum, and in the main square stands a romantic nineteenth-century statue of Ambiorix, the chieftain who gave Julius Caesar a very bad winter. A few minutes' walk from all that pomp lies the béguinage, a quiet quarter of low brick houses, cobbled lanes and small gardens that once housed communities of beguines, religious women who lived a semi-independent life without taking the full vows of nuns.
Read the complete Béguinage de Tongeren write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Béguinage de Tongeren comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. 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.
about 57 km into the recorded legs you reach Beguinage de Sint-Truiden. Next is Béguinage de Diest.
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, 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 sits at 110 km, about halfway. Next is back through Béguinage de Tongeren.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Béguinage de Tongeren write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Béguinage de Tongeren comes up about 129 km into the recorded legs. Next is 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.
Blegny-Mine closes the day.
Blegny-Mine → Béguinage de Tongeren is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Béguinage de Tongeren → Beguinage de Sint-Truiden is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beguinage de Sint-Truiden → Béguinage de Diest is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Béguinage de Diest → back through Beguinage de Sint-Truiden is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Beguinage de Sint-Truiden → back through Béguinage de Tongeren is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Béguinage de Tongeren → Blegny-Mine is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.