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 285 km round trip from Brussels - roughly 5 h 02 in the saddle. The stops in between: Béguinage de Dendermonde, Petit Béguinage de Gent, \Halletoren\ ou Belfort and Belfort en Stadhuis. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
This part of the ride is 35 km of La Grand-Place → Béguinage de Dendermonde.
The Grand-Place in Brussels is a square so densely decorated with gold, stone and sculpture that visitors tend to stop at the entrance and just stare. The Gothic town hall, with its slender tower, fills one side, and the guildhalls of the old trades, brewers, bakers, butchers and others, line the rest, each topped with gilded statues and ornate gables. Most of it was rebuilt after a French bombardment in 1695 destroyed the centre of the city, and the speed and ambition of the reconstruction is part of the story.
Read the complete La Grand-Place write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La Grand-Place is where the day begins. Next is Béguinage de Dendermonde.
Push open the gate of the Dendermonde béguinage and the traffic noise of the ring road simply drops away. Inside is a quiet triangle of grass, whitewashed houses with green shutters and a modest church, where for centuries communities of beguines lived. These were laywomen who chose a shared religious life without taking permanent vows, earning their keep with lacework, nursing and teaching. The béguinage is one of thirteen in Flanders listed together by UNESCO, and it is among the most intimate of them.
Read the complete Béguinage de Dendermonde write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Béguinage de Dendermonde comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Petit Béguinage de Gent.
Push open a gate off a busy Ghent street and the noise drops away. The Klein Begijnhof, the Small Béguinage, is a walled enclave of whitewashed and brick houses with stepped gables around a green courtyard and a Baroque church. Béguines were lay women who lived in community, devoted to prayer and work but without taking permanent vows, and this béguinage was founded in the thirteenth century. Most of the present buildings date from the seventeenth century. Together with other Flemish béguinages, it is on the UNESCO World Heritage list, and it remains one of the calmest places in the city.
Read the complete Petit Béguinage de Gent write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 69 km into the recorded legs you reach Petit Béguinage de Gent. 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, about halfway. Next is Belfort en Stadhuis.
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 sits at 146 km, about halfway. 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 comes up about 179 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Petit Béguinage de Gent.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Petit Béguinage de Gent write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 218 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Petit Béguinage de Gent. Next is back through Béguinage de Dendermonde.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Béguinage de Dendermonde write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Béguinage de Dendermonde, late in the day. Next is La Grand-Place.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La Grand-Place write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 285 km.
La Grand-Place → Béguinage de Dendermonde is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Béguinage de Dendermonde → Petit Béguinage de Gent is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Petit Béguinage de Gent → \Halletoren\ ou Belfort is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
\Halletoren\ ou Belfort → Belfort en Stadhuis is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Belfort en Stadhuis → back through \Halletoren\ ou Belfort is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through \Halletoren\ ou Belfort → back through Petit Béguinage de Gent is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Petit Béguinage de Gent → back through Béguinage de Dendermonde is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Béguinage de Dendermonde → La Grand-Place is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.