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 350 km round trip from La Louvière - roughly 5 h 04 in the saddle. It goes by way of Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict, Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort, Béguinage de Diest and Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto. The line favours views over speed.
The coal that powered Belgium came from a ribbon of pits across Hainaut, and Bois-du-Luc is where the story is told best. The mining company here, the Societe de Bois-du-Luc, was founded in the late seventeenth century, making it one of the oldest in Europe, and it kept going until the pit closed in 1973. The site is now a museum and heritage centre, and it is listed by UNESCO as one of the Major Mining Sites of Wallonia, together with Grand-Hornu, Bois du Cazier and Blegny-Mine.
Read the complete Bois-du-Luc write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bois-du-Luc is where the day begins. Next is Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict.
The beeches in the Sonian Forest grow so tall and straight that people call it the cathedral forest, and once you stand under them on a misty autumn morning the name stops sounding like tourist talk. This great woodland on the southeastern edge of Brussels covers thousands of hectares, and most of the famous columns of grey trunks were planted in the late eighteenth century, when the Austrian Habsburgs ruled these lands and their foresters reshaped the old wood. A few patches, including the Tict reserve near La Hulpe and Waterloo, are left to grow wild with no felling at all, and they form part of the UNESCO listing for the ancient and primeval beech forests of Europe, a chain of reserves stretching across the continent.
Read the complete Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict comes up about 42 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort.
Leuven is a university town through and through. Its university, founded in 1425, is the oldest in the Low Countries, and its students fill the streets, cafés and squares, giving the city a youthful energy. At its heart is the Grote Markt, dominated by two buildings: the Town Hall, a Gothic masterpiece covered in hundreds of statues, and opposite it, the Church of St Peter, a great Gothic church whose tower was never finished but which is part of the UNESCO-listed Belfries of Belgium and France.
Read the complete Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 84 km into the recorded legs you reach Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort. 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 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 sits at 168 km, about halfway. Next is back through 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.
back through Béguinage de Diest comes up about 230 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 265 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort. Next is back through Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict, late in the day. Next is Bois-du-Luc.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bois-du-Luc write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 350 km.
Bois-du-Luc → Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict → Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort is 42 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort → Béguinage de Diest is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Béguinage de Diest → Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Onze-Lieve-Lievevrouwebasiliek met Stadsto → back through Béguinage de Diest is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Béguinage de Diest → back through Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort → back through Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict → Bois-du-Luc is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.