Why this ride
From Antwerpen it runs 214 km to Antwerpen; allow about 3 h 11 of riding. On the way it passes Flemish Béguinages, Hôtel van Eetvelde, Beffroi de Gembloux and back through Hôtel van Eetvelde. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Com and Beffroi de Gembloux
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 214 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 11
- 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. Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Com
In 1555 a French bookbinder called Christophe Plantin set up a printing press in Antwerp, then one of the richest cities in Europe, and his business became the largest printing house of its time, printing Bibles, atlases, scientific works and books in many languages. His son in law, Jan Moretus, and the Moretus family carried on the business for three centuries, and their home and workshops on the Vrijdagmarkt, preserved almost intact, are now a museum. It holds the two oldest surviving printing presses in the world, a huge collection of type, woodblocks and copper plates, a library and portraits painted by Rubens, a friend of the family. In 2005 it became the first museum listed as a World Heritage Site.
Read the complete Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Com write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Com 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 25 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 58 km into the recorded legs you reach Hôtel van Eetvelde. Next is Beffroi de Gembloux.
4. Beffroi de Gembloux
Gembloux grew up around a Benedictine abbey founded in the tenth century, and for most of its history the monks ran the show. The abbey buildings, rebuilt in a grand classical style in the eighteenth century, now house a university faculty of agricultural sciences, fitting for a town surrounded by some of the richest farmland in Belgium. The belfry, a solid tower that was once part of a church and later became the town's civic symbol, stands in the centre and is part of the UNESCO listing of belfries of Belgium and France. Climbing it gives views over the rooftops and across the open fields of the Hesbaye.
Read the complete Beffroi de Gembloux write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Beffroi de Gembloux, 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 147 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 190 km into the recorded legs. Next is Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Com.
7. Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Com
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Com write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Com closes the day.
Leg by leg
Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Com to Flemish Béguinages
Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Com → Flemish Béguinages is 25 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 Beffroi de Gembloux
Hôtel van Eetvelde → Beffroi de Gembloux is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de Gembloux to back through Hôtel van Eetvelde
Beffroi de Gembloux → back through Hôtel van Eetvelde is 50 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 Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Com
back through Flemish Béguinages → Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Com is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.