Cycling in Belgium (Ypres)

dfriel2

Following a good tour around the Somme battlefields last year, 10 of us are having a weekend in Belgium based in Ypres. There's two days of cycling and main aim is to visit the local battlefields / cemeteries. Before route planning starts, does anyone have any tips / suggestions? Is there anything to avoid? Having done some streetview research it seems that most main roads have a parallel cyclepath so looks like cycling is accommodated everywhere.

whosthedaddy

You will have no problems.
Visited in October last year
8 of us cycled from Dunkirk to Ypres, Ypres to Bruges and Bruges to Dunkirk.
Visited several cemeteries along the way.
Everything is geared up for cycling over there with plenty of cyclepaths and generally everyone very courteous.
We are planning to do it again this year.

dfriel2

Thanks, certainly looks good. Fingers crossed for some decent September weather!

Was Ypres a good night out?

andrew_s

Most main roads do have a roadside cycle track, and where there is one, it is compulsory to use it. Usually, it's one each side, concrete, about 1m wide with a 50cm cobble strip as a separator, but sometimes there's a 2-way cycle track on one side. These can swap sides, and where they do there's a diagonal cycle lane straight over which has priority over the road (marked with dashed "give way" lines for the cars). However, being British and not Belgian, I wait until I see the cars start to slow before I ride out.
On the whole, the minor roads give better cycling, provided that your navigation is up to it.

Don't try to visit everything. There's too much for a weekend, and trying will leave you rushed and not seeing things properly.

A nice loop from Ieper is to head out north along the canal (past Essex Farm) to Boezinge, visit the Yorkshire trench site, head out along the old railway cycle track to Langemark (main German cemetary), then go SE past the brooding soldier (Canadian) to Tyne Cot & Zonnebeke. The Passchendaele museum in Zonnebeke is good, and combines well with the compulsory visit to Tyne Cot. From Zonnebeke you can do Polygon Wood (Australian), then Hill 62/Sanctuary Wood (Canadian), with a small museum and preserved trenches behind the cafe at the bottom of the hill. Hill 62 can be approached from the south along a short footpath/cycle track.

If you are a beer drinker, and get an overdose of WW1, you could visit the cafe "In de Vrede" at St Sixtus Abbey, 4 or 5 miles north of Poperinge (Toc H). It's the only reliable place to try Westvleteren 12, reputedly the best beer in the world.

I'd recommend reserving a table for about 8:30 (just after the Menin Gate ceremony, ask for precise timings), and staying put after you've eaten rather than trying to find another bar. We used one of the ones in the corner next to the Cloth Hall.
If you need a bike shop, there's one out along the Poperinge road, just before crossing the railway line.

whosthedaddy

dfriel2 wrote:

Thanks, certainly looks good. Fingers crossed for some decent September weather!

Was Ypres a good night out?

I cant remember too much, beer was nice though. 8)

mac111051

Go into the visitor center in the Flanders Field Shop in the center of Ypres and get a cycling map of the area every junction will have a sign post with numbers on and its just a matter of plotting your route from the numbers on the map, just found the map you need it,s Westhoek Zuid

http://www.fietsroute.org/indexuk.php

dfriel2

Thanks everyone for the suggestions / help. All perfect. I'm sure that the bike shop will come in useful...

The route planner looks ideal as does the route suggestion focused on Tyne Cot (which is basically what I'm thinking of for the second day).

The Friday will be a longer ride to the west (Great Grandfather is buried at Mendinghem near Proven), just a shame that the St Sixtus Abbey beer cafe is shut Fridays! That would have been perfect.

mikeincov

Hi,

I plan to spend 2 days in Ypres and looking for ideas for route's that includes Breweries and famous Cafes etc. Ant thoughts and are there any other towns I should consider?

Cheers.

Mike

orraloon

Can't go wrong round them parts for easy routes, keep away from the N roads and you're good.

In Ieper do visit the Kazematten bar, just along from the Menin gate, in the old brick lined tunnels built into the old city wall. And worth visiting the CWXRM workshop in the end tunnel, is where you can make a clay figurine to add to the 600,000 they are making to commemorate the number of WWI dead in Belgium.

The St Arnoldus bar in Menenstraat down from the Gate has 25+ beers on tap.

Definitely plan to visit the St Sixtus abbey Westvleteren, the cafe In De Vrede. Take in Watou, some good bars and home of both St Bernardus brewery just outside town, they do tours, and the Hommelbier brewery van Eecke.

Poperinge has some good bars around the Grote Markt, and a cracker Het Mysterie just on the other side of the ring road on the road to Abele.

I love that part of the world...

BelgianBeerGeek

If you are going to the Vrede, just a bit further on is the Struise Brewers taproom in Oostvleteren. It only opens Saturday afternoons but you get to drink some extraordinary beers in an old schoolroom. Kids chairs, the lot. The entrance is through a doorway in a terrace. You are in the right place if all the cars outside are Dutch or German. Check it out on RateBeer or similar.
There are a couple of nice cafes in Oostvleteren itself.

orraloon

BelgianBeerGeek wrote:

If you are going to the Vrede, just a bit further on is the Struise Brewers taproom in Oostvleteren. It only opens Saturday afternoons but you get to drink some extraordinary beers in an old schoolroom. Kids chairs, the lot. The entrance is through a doorway in a terrace. You are in the right place if all the cars outside are Dutch or German. Check it out on RateBeer or similar.
There are a couple of nice cafes in Oostvleteren itself.

Good find. On the list for our next visit.

BelgianBeerGeek

I hope you like it (I did :P ). Going towards the coast, there is a track from Pervijze to Niuewpoort (?) that goes along the banks of the IJzer that the Belgians flooded to stem the German advance. The whole story is shown on display boards along the route and is very interesting. It was desperate stuff, and real touch and go. You can go and see Kollwitz's monument to her son nearby - very moving.
If you go to Dranken VandeVoude in Pervijze itself, the leaning pile of stones in their back yard was used as an observation tower by the Belgian army and treated accordingly by the Germans. Go back in the car and park round the corner, stroll into the warehouse and you are are in beer heaven. The fork lift drivers are great, and are well-used to idiots like me, but if you knock on the door to the office someone will help.
Lurking up on the shelves can be some amazing stuff. Last time I went I got loads of stuff from La Rulles. Julie at the checkout was very cool, but there lots of rarities this for far north. And while they check out your beer, through the window you get another view of the above mentioned OP tower.

kirkee

The Kemmelberg is nearby to Ypres. That has WW1 history, I read that it was a German OP position and battled over due to this. Also has the cycling history too as its used in Gent Wevelgem.

orraloon

BelgianBeerGeek wrote:

I hope you like it (I did :P ).
If you go to Dranken VandeVoude in Pervijze...

Thanks for the tips. Just catching up on this thread, and at risk of turning it into a Belgian beer thread, but hey. We used to go to Nevejan wholesaler in Krombeke, but that changed hands and the range reduced a lot. For last couple of years, we have gone for supplies to Vanuxeem in Ploegsteert right down by the French border outside Armentieres. Diksmuide and Ploegsteert would be about equidistant from our usual base of Poperinge. Vanuxeem has a great range of beers at good case prices, but is a (very packed and popular) shop rather than a wholesaler depot.

Will pass on the VandeVoude details to my pals, next trip due sometime in the spring. And I've seen those Ijzer trail signs before but not as yet followed.

orraloon

And the Belgian beer thread hijack continues...

Visited de Struise brewery this Saturday. Excellent beers, range of 30, all of them from 3% to 17% ABV at €1 for 10cl, €2 for 20cl.

Well worth a visit, only open 2-6 on a Saturday. Is a bit weird, the address Kasteelstraat 50 takes you to a derelict building, you think 'this can't be it', go across the road to the Molenhof bar, find dozens of bikes parked up, go inside and find a bar packed with people waiting for 1400 when the door to de Struise opens, and game on. Brewery is in the old school behind the derelict facade.

An entirely different experience. If you are touring-type cycling in the area, plan your route and timings accordingly.

PS that 17% abv Zombinator was actually lovely, in small sips...