Why this ride
From Antwerpen it runs 239 km to Antwerpen; allow about 3 h 18 of riding. On the way it passes Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle B, Bois du Cazier and back through Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle B.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal and Bois du Cazier
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 239 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 18
- 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 Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle B.
2. Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle B
Imagine a cathedral built entirely of beech trunks, grey and smooth, rising forty metres or more to a roof of leaves, and you have the Sonian Forest at its finest. This great wood on the south-eastern edge of Brussels, the Forêt de Soignes or Zoniënwoud, covers thousands of hectares, and its most remarkable stands, including the Grippensdelle reserve near Hoeilaart, are part of the transnational World Heritage Site of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of Europe, inscribed in 2017.
Read the complete Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle B write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle B comes up about 58 km into the recorded legs. Next is Bois du Cazier.
3. Bois du Cazier
On the morning of 8 August 1956, a fire broke out in the Bois du Cazier coal mine in Marcinelle, near Charleroi, after a mechanical error in the shaft loaded a lift cage with a wagon and cut an oil pipe and electric cables. Smoke filled the galleries within minutes. Two hundred and sixty-two miners died, and only thirteen were rescued. Most of the dead were immigrants, and one hundred and thirty-six of them were Italian, men who had come to Belgium under a 1946 agreement that exchanged Italian labour for Belgian coal. The disaster remains a deep wound in Belgian and Italian memory, and it changed mining safety rules across Europe.
Read the complete Bois du Cazier write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 120 km into the recorded legs you reach Bois du Cazier. Next is back through Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle B.
4. back through Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle B
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle B write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle B, late in the day. Next is Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal.
5. 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
Back at Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal to Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle B
Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal → Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle B is 58 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle B to Bois du Cazier
Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle B → Bois du Cazier is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bois du Cazier to back through Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle B
Bois du Cazier → back through Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle B is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle B to Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal
back through Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle B → Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal is 60 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.