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 270 km round trip from Mechelen - roughly 4 h 39 in the saddle. It goes by way of Béguinage de Hoogstraten, Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout and back through Béguinage de Hoogstraten. It crosses from Belgium into Netherlands - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Saint Rumbold's Tower dominates the skyline of Mechelen like a very tall stone cliff. It is the bell tower of the cathedral, and it rises to about ninety-seven metres. It was begun in the fourteenth century and was meant to go higher, with a spire that would have made it among the tallest in Europe, but the money ran out and the tower was left with a flat top in the sixteenth century. That unfinished stump is somehow more memorable than a completed spire would have been. It is part of the UNESCO list of belfries of Belgium and France, and a ring of bells hangs inside, including two carillons, one of which is played by hand from a keyboard of wooden batons.
Read the complete Tour de Saint-Rombaut write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tour de Saint-Rombaut is where the day begins. Next is Béguinage de Hoogstraten.
A béguinage is one of the most peaceful places in the Low Countries: a walled enclosure of small houses around a green courtyard and a church, built in the Middle Ages for béguines, women who lived a religious life of prayer and work without taking permanent vows. They could own property, leave if they wished and support themselves by weaving, teaching or nursing, which made the béguinages a unique form of female independence in medieval Europe. The béguinage at Hoogstraten, in the north of Antwerp province near the Dutch border, is one of thirteen Flemish béguinages on the World Heritage list, and it is a quiet, charming place, with whitewashed houses, a baroque church and a garden where time seems to slow.
Read the complete Béguinage de Hoogstraten write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Béguinage de Hoogstraten comes up about 62 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout.
Nineteen windmills stand in two rows along the canals at Kinderdijk, their sails turning slowly against the wide Dutch sky, and it is one of the most iconic sights in the Netherlands. They were built in the eighteenth century to pump water out of the Alblasserwaard, a low-lying polder between the rivers Lek and Noord, which would otherwise be flooded. Each mill lifted water from a lower canal to a higher one, and from there it was let out into the river. Over time steam, diesel and electric pumping stations took over the job, and the most recent ones still keep the polder dry today. The mill network was listed by UNESCO in 1997.
Read the complete Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 135 km into the recorded legs you reach Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout. Next is back through Béguinage de Hoogstraten.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Béguinage de Hoogstraten write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Béguinage de Hoogstraten, late in the day. Next is Tour de Saint-Rombaut.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tour de Saint-Rombaut write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Tour de Saint-Rombaut. That is the ride.
Tour de Saint-Rombaut → Béguinage de Hoogstraten is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Béguinage de Hoogstraten → Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Mill Network at Kinderdijk-Elshout → back through Béguinage de Hoogstraten is 73 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Béguinage de Hoogstraten → Tour de Saint-Rombaut is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.