Why this ride
A 174 km round trip from Antwerpen - roughly 3 h in the saddle. The stops in between: Flemish Béguinages, Hôtel van Eetvelde, Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi and back through Hôtel van Eetvelde.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal and Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 174 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 48
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal
Antwerp's cathedral tower is visible from almost anywhere in the city, and for good reason. The spire of the Cathedral of Our Lady rises about 123 metres above the old town, a slender, lacy Gothic needle that Napoleon is said to have compared with Mechelen lace. Work began in the middle of the fourteenth century and dragged on until the early sixteenth, by which time the city was the richest port in Northern Europe. The builders planned two towers but only finished one, and the unfinished stump of the second gives the facade its lopsided look.
Read the complete Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal is where the day begins. Next is Flemish Béguinages.
2. Flemish Béguinages
In the thirteenth century, a remarkable movement spread across the Low Countries. Women, often unmarried or widowed, chose to live together in communities devoted to prayer and work, without taking the permanent vows of nuns, keeping their property and the freedom to leave. They were called béguines, and their walled settlements, the béguinages, became towns within towns. The Groot Begijnhof of Mechelen, the great béguinage, is one of thirteen in Flanders listed by UNESCO, and at its height it housed well over a thousand women, making it one of the largest communities of its kind.
Read the complete Flemish Béguinages write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Flemish Béguinages comes up about 24 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hôtel van Eetvelde.
3. Hôtel van Eetvelde
Victor Horta built this house between 1895 and 1898 for Edmond van Eetvelde, a senior official who ran the affairs of King Leopold II's Congo Free State from Brussels, and it is impossible now to look at it without holding both of those facts at once: one of the most daring houses of the Art Nouveau age, paid for in a world shaped by the brutal exploitation of the Congo. Hôtel van Eetvelde stands on the Avenue Palmerston near the Square Ambiorix, in the European quarter, and with three other Horta houses it was inscribed in 2000 as the Major Town Houses of the Architect Victor Horta.
Read the complete Hôtel van Eetvelde write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 57 km into the recorded legs you reach Hôtel van Eetvelde. Next is Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi.
4. Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi
The Grote Markt of Mechelen is one of the grandest squares in Belgium, and on its eastern side stands the old cloth hall with its belfry, a building with a curious history. The hall was built in the fourteenth century, when Mechelen was a rich cloth-making town, and the belfry was planned to be a tall tower, but it was never finished. Its stump was eventually given a pointed roof, and later a sixteenth-century extension in the Renaissance style was begun to house the Great Council of the Netherlands, but that too remained unfinished. The belfry is part of the UNESCO listing of the belfries of Belgium and France.
Read the complete Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi, about halfway. Next is back through Hôtel van Eetvelde.
5. back through Hôtel van Eetvelde
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hôtel van Eetvelde write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Hôtel van Eetvelde sits at 116 km, about halfway. Next is back through Flemish Béguinages.
6. back through Flemish Béguinages
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Flemish Béguinages write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Flemish Béguinages comes up about 148 km into the recorded legs. Next is Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal.
7. Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal closes the day.
Leg by leg
Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal to Flemish Béguinages
Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal → Flemish Béguinages is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Flemish Béguinages to Hôtel van Eetvelde
Flemish Béguinages → Hôtel van Eetvelde is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hôtel van Eetvelde to Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi
Hôtel van Eetvelde → Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi to back through Hôtel van Eetvelde
Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi → back through Hôtel van Eetvelde is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hôtel van Eetvelde to back through Flemish Béguinages
back through Hôtel van Eetvelde → back through Flemish Béguinages is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Flemish Béguinages to Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal
back through Flemish Béguinages → Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal is 25 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.