Why this ride
280 km from Hoeilaart to Hoeilaart, about 4 h 46 of riding. The stops in between: Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi, Stadhuis met Belfort, Petit Béguinage de Gent and \Halletoren\ ou Belfort. Much of it runs through woodland.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle A and \Halletoren\ ou Belfort
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 280 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 46
- 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. Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle A
Brussels has a cathedral of trees. The Sonian Forest, or Zoniënwoud, covers about four and a half thousand hectares on the south-eastern edge of the city, and most of it is beech, tall grey-barked trunks that rise like columns, with a canopy so dense that the forest floor under it is open and dim. Some trees are two centuries old, and the pattern of straight, evenly spaced trunks comes from the way the forest was managed in the eighteenth century under Austrian rule, when foresters planted the stands in a deliberate style. Parts of the forest were listed by UNESCO in 2021 as part of the ancient beech forests of Europe.
Read the complete Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle A write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle A is where the day begins. Next is Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi.
2. 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 comes up about 35 km into the recorded legs. Next is Stadhuis met Belfort.
3. Stadhuis met Belfort
Dendermonde sits where the Dender gives up and pours itself into the Scheldt, and the old town hall on the Grote Markt is the thing you aim for when you roll in. Its belfry is one of the Flemish and Walloon towers grouped together by UNESCO as the Belfries of Belgium and France, and the reason those towers matter is simple: in the medieval Low Countries a belfry was the civic answer to the church spire. It held the town charters, the bell that called the citizens, and the watchman who looked out for fire and for armies. Dendermonde needed the watchman more than most, because a town at a river junction is a town everybody wants, and it was besieged, burned and rebuilt more than once, most brutally in 1914 when German troops set much of it alight.
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
about 67 km into the recorded legs you reach Stadhuis met Belfort. Next is Petit Béguinage de Gent.
4. 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, about halfway. Next is \Halletoren\ ou Belfort.
5. \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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
\Halletoren\ ou Belfort sits at 147 km, about halfway. Next is back through Petit Béguinage de Gent.
6. back through 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 through Petit Béguinage de Gent comes up about 179 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Stadhuis met Belfort.
7. 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
about 212 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Stadhuis met Belfort. Next is back through Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi.
8. back through Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi
Return visit. Read the place description above.
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
back through Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi, late in the day. Next is Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle A.
9. Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle A
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle A write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 280 km.
Leg by leg
Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle A to Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi
Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle A → Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi to Stadhuis met Belfort
Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi → Stadhuis met Belfort is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Stadhuis met Belfort to Petit Béguinage de Gent
Stadhuis met Belfort → Petit Béguinage de Gent is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Petit Béguinage de Gent to \Halletoren\ ou Belfort
Petit Béguinage de Gent → \Halletoren\ ou Belfort is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
\Halletoren\ ou Belfort to back through Petit Béguinage de Gent
\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 to back through Stadhuis met Belfort
back through Petit Béguinage de Gent → back through Stadhuis met Belfort is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Stadhuis met Belfort to back through Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi
back through Stadhuis met Belfort → back through Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi to Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle A
back through Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi → Sonian Forest - Grippensdelle A is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.