Stadhuis met Belfort and Stadhuis met Belfort starting at Dendermonde

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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

   Stadhuis met Belfort is where the day begins. Next is Béguinage de Sint-Amandsberg / Gent.

2. 2. Béguinage de Sint-Amandsberg / Gent

   The Great Béguinage of Sint-Amandsberg looks like a small walled town of its own, tucked into a residential suburb just east of the centre of Ghent. When the city expanded in the 1870s and the old béguinage of St Elisabeth was in the way, the beguines, lay religious women who lived in community without taking permanent vows, moved here to a new complex of neo-Gothic houses, convents and a church, all laid out around streets, squares and gardens behind a wall and gate. The move was funded by the Duke of Arenberg, and the whole place was finished in just a few years. It is one of the thirteen Flemish Béguinages on the UNESCO list since 1998, and although the beguines are gone, the houses are still lived in, and the atmosphere is calm and quiet.

   Read the complete Béguinage de Sint-Amandsberg / Gent write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Béguinage de Sint-Amandsberg / Gent comes up 30 km in. Next is Stadhuis met Belfort.

3. 3. 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

   59 km in you reach Stadhuis met Belfort. Next is back through Béguinage de Sint-Amandsberg / Gent.

4. 4. back through Béguinage de Sint-Amandsberg / Gent

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Béguinage de Sint-Amandsberg / Gent 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 Sint-Amandsberg / Gent, late in the day.

5. 5. 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 at Stadhuis met Belfort. That is the ride.