CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 334 km round trip from Hoogstraten - roughly 5 h 53 in the saddle. It goes by way of Stadhuis en Belforttoren, Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort, Maison & Atelier Horta and Beffroi de Gembloux. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Wortel is a village in the Belgian Kempen, near the Dutch border, and it is the Belgian member of a World Heritage group whose other two parts, Frederiksoord and Veenhuizen, lie in the Netherlands. The story begins in 1818, when a Dutch army officer, Johannes van den Bosch, founded the Society of Benevolence, an organisation with the grand idea of rescuing the urban poor by sending them to work on farms in the countryside. The first free colonies were founded in the Netherlands, at Frederiksoord, and in 1822 the society bought land at Wortel, then part of the same kingdom, and opened a colony there. When Belgium split away in 1830 the colony remained in Belgian territory.
Read the complete Wortel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Wortel is where the day begins. Next is Stadhuis en Belforttoren.
Lier's Grote Markt is one of those squares that makes you slow down without being asked. In the middle stands an elegant eighteenth-century town hall in pale stone, and grafted onto its side is something much older: a slim Gothic belfry from the fourteenth century, its four corner turrets giving it the look of a castle chess piece. Together they belong to the group of Belgian and French belfries listed by UNESCO, symbols of the moment when medieval towns won their freedoms and built towers to prove it.
Read the complete Stadhuis en Belforttoren write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Stadhuis en Belforttoren comes up 43 km in. 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.
86 km in you reach Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort. Next is 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Maison & Atelier Horta, about halfway. Next is Beffroi de Gembloux.
Gembloux grew up around a Benedictine abbey founded in the tenth century, and for most of its history the monks ran the show. The abbey buildings, rebuilt in a grand classical style in the eighteenth century, now house a university faculty of agricultural sciences, fitting for a town surrounded by some of the richest farmland in Belgium. The belfry, a solid tower that was once part of a church and later became the town's civic symbol, stands in the centre and is part of the UNESCO listing of belfries of Belgium and France. Climbing it gives views over the rooftops and across the open fields of the Hesbaye.
Read the complete Beffroi de Gembloux write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Beffroi de Gembloux sits at 172 km, about halfway. Next is back through Maison & Atelier Horta.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Maison & Atelier Horta write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Maison & Atelier Horta comes up 215 km in. Next is back through Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
258 km in you reach back through Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort. Next is back through Stadhuis en Belforttoren.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Stadhuis en Belforttoren write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Stadhuis en Belforttoren, late in the day. Next is Wortel.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Wortel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 334 km.
Wortel → Stadhuis en Belforttoren is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Stadhuis en Belforttoren → Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort → Maison & Atelier Horta is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Maison & Atelier Horta → Beffroi de Gembloux is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Beffroi de Gembloux → back through Maison & Atelier Horta is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Maison & Atelier Horta → back through Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sint-Pieterskerk / Belfort → back through Stadhuis en Belforttoren is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Stadhuis en Belforttoren → Wortel is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.