calais to cologne via bruge, brussels, maastricht

Baybash

Can anyone recommend a good route that uses cycle lanes?

Limburger

Don't know if you have your heart set on Brussels but I would give it a miss. Its a dump. Only the main square is nice looking, the rest is run down due to the lack of a proper belgian government.

Try Antwerpen. The place is beautiful.

Make sure you pass through the triple point and Valkenberg on your way to Maastricht too.

Limburger

Just realised that taking in Valkenburg and the triple point would be a bit of a detour for you.

Its a bit of an empty region.

Still miss Brussels.

http://www.fietsrouteplanner.eu/
Eat some Vlaai in maastricht.

harpo

In Brussels there are some nice areas like Louisa but this is bang in the city centre. Generally it is a bit of a dump I have to agree.

Seem to remember Etterbeek being a better district if you must go through there and also the district where the English school is as this is where more Nato and EU Parliament families stay and there are a few nice parks round that area.

I think Leuven is OK which is near Brussels again if you must stick that direction.

I agree that Antwerp is nice but not as nice as Bruges and someone I know from Gent claims that to be nice but undervisited.

There is a canal from Oostende to Bruges which I'm pretty sure a path runs alongside.

You can't go far wrong in Belgium as there are plenty of cycling routes along the side of canals and at the side of roads. Just select your route and use the satelite function to see what it looks like on a mapping system. The cycle function on www.bikeroutetoaster.com shows loads of cycle routes around the east of Belgium.

Baybash

Thanks for all the advice. The plan is to do the trip in 4 days so we only really expect to spend a short evening in each town[/list][/b]

jc4lab

You can pass through Brussels without stopping..take a look at the Old city for a couple of hours then carry on..You then start to approach the Ardennes which is quite pleasant. with Rock church and craggs near Diinant etc...They are tougher than you imagine when you get there..Not sure if the Ardenned would be taking you off course a little though..if going to Masstrict.From there went to the Mosel wine area ,Trier and then Strasbourg

andymiller

Limburger wrote:

Don't know if you have your heart set on Brussels but I would give it a miss. Its a dump. Only the main square is nice looking, the rest is run down due to the lack of a proper belgian government.

Sorry, but that's complete rubbish. I'm not saying that Brussels is the most exciting place in the world, and I don't know that I'd make a trip especially to go there (I've been there quite a few times for work) but there are nice neighbourhoods away from the EU offices and the hotels/office blocks in the commercial centre. And there are some beautiful art nouveau houses to visit. There's definitely a lot more to it than the Grande Place and you could easily find enough to do and see to spend an enjoyable couple of days.