CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
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.
400 km from Spa to Spa, about 6 h 07 of riding. It goes by way of Aachen Cathedral, Béguinage de Tongeren, Sint-Leonarduskerk and Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort. It crosses from Belgium into Germany - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 47 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
The word spa comes from this town, and that is the kind of claim that most places make and few can prove. Here it happens to be true: Spa, in the Ardennes foothills of eastern Belgium, has been a place for taking the waters since the Romans, who are said to have noted its iron-rich springs, and from the sixteenth century it was a fashionable resort. Visitors have included the Russian emperor Peter the Great, who came in 1717 to cure his stomach, and the town's central spring, the Pouhon Pierre-le-Grand, is named after him. The bottled water that bears the town's name is sold worldwide, and the little town has a quiet, slightly faded charm, with grand hotels, a thermal baths complex on the hill and a casino.
Read the complete Spa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Spa is where the day begins. Next is Aachen Cathedral.
Charlemagne chose Aachen for its hot springs, and the springs still bubble up under the old town, smelling faintly of sulphur at the fountains where they surface. Around the end of the eighth century he built a palace here and, at its heart, a chapel: an octagon under a dome, ringed by a sixteen-sided ambulatory, designed by Odo of Metz with columns and marble shipped from Ravenna and Rome. That chapel is the core of Aachen Cathedral, and in 1978 it became the first site in Germany on the World Heritage list.
Read the complete Aachen Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Aachen Cathedral comes up about 53 km into the recorded legs. Next is Béguinage de Tongeren.
Tongeren calls itself the oldest town in Belgium, and it has a Roman name, a Gallic hero and a weekly antiques market to back up the claim. Under the Romans it was Atuatuca Tungrorum, and in the main square stands a romantic nineteenth-century statue of Ambiorix, the chieftain who gave Julius Caesar a very bad winter. A few minutes' walk from all that pomp lies the béguinage, a quiet quarter of low brick houses, cobbled lanes and small gardens that once housed communities of beguines, religious women who lived a semi-independent life without taking the full vows of nuns.
Read the complete Béguinage de Tongeren write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 123 km into the recorded legs you reach Béguinage de Tongeren. Next is Sint-Leonarduskerk.
The church of Saint Leonard rises over the little town of Zoutleeuw, in the fruit-growing country east of Leuven, and it is far grander than the size of the place suggests. In the Middle Ages the town, known in French as Léau, was a prosperous trading centre on a route between Brabant and Liège, and its burghers put their money into stone. Work on the church began in the thirteenth century and went on for generations, giving a late Gothic body with a tall tower, rich sculpture and a lofty, light interior with white walls and tall windows.
Read the complete Sint-Leonarduskerk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sint-Leonarduskerk, about halfway. Next is Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort.
Leuven is a university town through and through. Its university, founded in 1425, is the oldest in the Low Countries, and its students fill the streets, cafés and squares, giving the city a youthful energy. At its heart is the Grote Markt, dominated by two buildings: the Town Hall, a Gothic masterpiece covered in hundreds of statues, and opposite it, the Church of St Peter, a great Gothic church whose tower was never finished but which is part of the UNESCO-listed Belfries of Belgium and France.
Read the complete Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort sits at 180 km, about halfway. Next is back through Sint-Leonarduskerk.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sint-Leonarduskerk write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sint-Leonarduskerk comes up about 247 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Béguinage de Tongeren.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Béguinage de Tongeren write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 276 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Béguinage de Tongeren. Next is back through Aachen Cathedral.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Aachen Cathedral write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Aachen Cathedral, late in the day. Next is Spa.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Spa write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 400 km.
Spa → Aachen Cathedral is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Aachen Cathedral → Béguinage de Tongeren is 70 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Béguinage de Tongeren → Sint-Leonarduskerk is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sint-Leonarduskerk → Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort → back through Sint-Leonarduskerk is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sint-Leonarduskerk → back through Béguinage de Tongeren is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Béguinage de Tongeren → back through Aachen Cathedral is 72 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Aachen Cathedral → Spa is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.