Petit Béguinage de Gent and Historic Centre of Brugge

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Petit Béguinage de Gent is where the day begins. Next is Stadhuis met Belfort.

2. 2. Stadhuis met Belfort

   Eeklo is the capital of the Meetjesland, the flat, green region of East Flanders between Ghent and Bruges, close to the Dutch border, and its town hall with a belfry, the Stadhuis met Belfort, stands on the market square as the symbol of the town. It is one of the belfries of Belgium and France listed by UNESCO, a group of civic towers that embodied the freedom and power of the medieval towns of Flanders. Eeklo's belfry is modest compared with those of Bruges and Ghent, but it has its own charm, rising above a town that most visitors pass through without stopping.

   Read the complete Stadhuis met Belfort write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Stadhuis met Belfort comes up 29 km in. Next is Historic Centre of Brugge.

3. 3. Historic Centre of Brugge

   Bruges was once one of the richest cities in northern Europe, a trading hub where merchants from Italy, Germany, England and Spain bought and sold wool, cloth, spices and luxury goods. Its wealth came from its access to the sea through an inlet called the Zwin, and when that silted up in the fifteenth century, trade moved to Antwerp and Bruges slowly fell asleep. For centuries it was a quiet, poor town, and that is why its medieval centre survived almost intact. In the nineteenth century, writers and painters rediscovered it, and Georges Rodenbach's novel Bruges-la-Morte made it famous as a melancholy city of canals and bells. The historic centre was listed by UNESCO in 2000.

   Read the complete Historic Centre of Brugge write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   59 km in you reach Historic Centre of Brugge. Next is back through Stadhuis met Belfort.

4. 4. back through Stadhuis met Belfort

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Stadhuis met Belfort write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Stadhuis met Belfort, late in the day. Next is Petit Béguinage de Gent.

5. 5. Petit Béguinage de Gent

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Petit Béguinage de Gent write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Petit Béguinage de Gent. That is the ride.