Why this ride
A 160 km round trip from Waterloo - roughly 3 h 29 in the saddle. The stops in between: Maison & Atelier Horta, Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi, Béguinage de Lier and Flemish Béguinages.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict and Flemish Béguinages
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 160 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 29
- 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 - Réserve forestière du Tict
The beeches in the Sonian Forest grow so tall and straight that people call it the cathedral forest, and once you stand under them on a misty autumn morning the name stops sounding like tourist talk. This great woodland on the southeastern edge of Brussels covers thousands of hectares, and most of the famous columns of grey trunks were planted in the late eighteenth century, when the Austrian Habsburgs ruled these lands and their foresters reshaped the old wood. A few patches, including the Tict reserve near La Hulpe and Waterloo, are left to grow wild with no felling at all, and they form part of the UNESCO listing for the ancient and primeval beech forests of Europe, a chain of reserves stretching across the continent.
Read the complete Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict is where the day begins. Next is Maison & Atelier Horta.
2. Maison & Atelier Horta
From the street, the house at Rue Américaine in Saint-Gilles is pleasant but unassuming, a narrow town house of stone and iron among many others. Inside, it becomes something else entirely: a flowing space of curving wrought iron, stained glass, mosaic floors and woodwork that seems to grow like plant tendrils, all bathed in light from a glass roof over the stairwell. Victor Horta, one of the founders of Art Nouveau, built it as his home and studio between 1898 and 1901, and it is now a museum dedicated to his work. In 2000, it was listed by UNESCO together with three other Horta town houses in Brussels, including the Hôtel Tassel, often cited as the first true Art Nouveau building.
Read the complete Maison & Atelier Horta write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Maison & Atelier Horta comes up about 16 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi.
3. 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
about 48 km into the recorded legs you reach Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi. Next is Béguinage de Lier.
4. Béguinage de Lier
Through a gateway off a busy street in Lier, you step into another world. The béguinage is a small walled neighbourhood of narrow cobbled lanes, whitewashed brick houses and a baroque church, where for centuries communities of beguines lived. These were religious women who chose a life of prayer, work and service without taking the permanent vows of nuns, living independently in their own houses but sharing a communal life. The béguinages of Flanders, about a dozen of them, were listed by UNESCO in 1998, and the one in Lier, with its quiet lanes and doorways topped with statues of saints, is one of the most charming.
Read the complete Béguinage de Lier write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Béguinage de Lier, about halfway. Next is Flemish Béguinages.
5. 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 sits at 84 km, about halfway. Next is back through Béguinage de Lier.
6. back through Béguinage de Lier
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Béguinage de Lier write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Béguinage de Lier comes up about 94 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi.
7. 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
about 109 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi. Next is back through Maison & Atelier Horta.
8. back through Maison & Atelier Horta
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Maison & Atelier Horta write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Maison & Atelier Horta, late in the day. Next is Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict.
9. Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict 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 160 km.
Leg by leg
Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict to Maison & Atelier Horta
Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict → Maison & Atelier Horta is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Maison & Atelier Horta to Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi
Maison & Atelier Horta → Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi to Béguinage de Lier
Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi → Béguinage de Lier is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Béguinage de Lier to Flemish Béguinages
Béguinage de Lier → Flemish Béguinages is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Flemish Béguinages to back through Béguinage de Lier
Flemish Béguinages → back through Béguinage de Lier is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Béguinage de Lier to back through Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi
back through Béguinage de Lier → back through Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi to back through Maison & Atelier Horta
back through Ancienne Halle avec Beffroi → back through Maison & Atelier Horta is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Maison & Atelier Horta to Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict
back through Maison & Atelier Horta → Sonian Forest - Réserve forestière du Tict is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.