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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 291 km round trip from Kraainem - roughly 5 h 01 in the saddle. On the way it passes Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville de Charleroi, Château de l’Hermitage and back through Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville de Charleroi. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
From the street, the Stoclet House on the Avenue de Tervueren looks like a mansion carved out of a block of white marble and trimmed with bronze, with a stepped tower crowned by four male figures and a dome of copper laurel. It was built between 1905 and 1911 for the Belgian banker and art collector Adolphe Stoclet and designed by the Viennese architect Josef Hoffmann, with the artists and craftsmen of the Wiener Werkstätte creating everything from the furniture to the cutlery. Gustav Klimt designed the mosaic frieze in the dining room, one of his most famous works. The house was listed by UNESCO in 2009 as one of the most complete and refined works of the Vienna Secession.
Read the complete Stoclet House write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Stoclet House is where the day begins. Next is Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville de Charleroi.
Charleroi has a reputation, unfairly earned or not, as one of the grittiest cities in Belgium, and its belfry is a fine reason to look again. Rising from the town hall on the Place Charles II, the belfry was built in the 1930s in an elegant Art Deco style, replacing an older tower, and it is one of the belfries of Belgium and France listed by UNESCO. Its slender shape, topped with a dome and carillon, is a symbol of the city's pride and resilience, and inside, the town hall has a sumptuous Art Deco interior.
Read the complete Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville de Charleroi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville de Charleroi comes up about 64 km into the recorded legs. Next is Château de l’Hermitage.
On the Franco-Belgian border, in a forest that has never much cared which country it is in, a pale classical château stands in a clearing. The Château de l'Hermitage was built in the eighteenth century for the dukes of Croÿ, one of the great aristocratic families of the region, as a refined country retreat, and it sits just inside France, near Condé-sur-l'Escaut, at the edge of the forest of Bon-Secours. The family's title went back centuries, and their estates spread across both sides of what is now the border.
Read the complete Château de l’Hermitage write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 146 km into the recorded legs you reach Château de l’Hermitage. Next is back through Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville de Charleroi.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville de Charleroi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville de Charleroi, late in the day. Next is Stoclet House.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Stoclet House write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Stoclet House. That is the ride.
Stoclet House → Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville de Charleroi is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville de Charleroi → Château de l’Hermitage is 82 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Château de l’Hermitage → back through Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville de Charleroi is 82 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Beffroi de l'Hôtel de Ville de Charleroi → Stoclet House is 64 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.