Cycling Flanders – Around the City of Bruges

Your cycle tour starts in Roeselare. After your arrival, stroll through the birthplace of the Flemish poet Rodenbach and visit the market square. You can get in the right mood for your vacation at the bicycle museum, which provides information about the history of the bicycle from its origins to the present day. Just outside is the castle of Rumbeke, one of the oldest Renaissance castles in Belgium.

Today you cycle on mostly flat paths between hills through Flanders. Ypres is home to one of the largest secular Gothic building complexes in Europe: the Cloth Hall once served as a transshipment and storage area for textiles and are topped by a 70-metre-high bell tower. Today, it is home to the multi-award-winning, interactive museum In Flanders Fields.

The route first takes you to the town of Poperinge near the border with France. In Vleteren, you can taste what is said to be the best beer in the world, the Trappist beer Westvleteren, at the Trappist Abbey of St. Sixtus. Follow the Yser, a coastal river on the border between Belgium and France, towards Diksmuide. In the district of Vladslo, you will find the sculpture group Trauerndes Ehepaar (Mourning Couple) by German artist Käthe Kollwitz.

Today you cycle to the UNESCO World Heritage city of Bruges. On the way there, you should plan a break in Jabbeke and visit the Provinciaal Museum Constant Permeke. More than 150 works of art by the artist, who is considered one of the most important representatives of Flemish Expressionism, are on display here. In the evening, you can stroll through Bruges for the first time, where you will spend the next three nights.

From Bruges, you cycle to Knokke on the North Sea. Here you will find a 12 km long fine-grained sandy beach. Knokke is a fashionable seaside resort with high-end boutiques and an art deco-style casino. To the east is Het Zwin, the largest nature reserve on the Belgian coast. In the evening, you return to Bruges, where you can visit the Church of Our Lady with the Bruges Madonna by Michelangelo.

Today, the route takes you back to the North Sea. Your destination is the vacation resort of De Haan, where Albert Einstein lived for six months in 1933. The Kusttram, a tram line that connects all the towns on the Belgian coast, also stops in De Haan. With a length of 68 kilometers, the line is the longest in the world and runs between Ostend and Zeebrugge directly past the North Sea shore.

The last stage takes you back to Roeselare. You will pass the fairytale moated castle of Wijnendale. The building was destroyed several times by invaders, most recently in 1811 by Napoleon's troops. A Brussels banker eventually had the castle rebuilt. The family still lives in part of the castle today. A museum has been set up in another part.

After breakfast, your cycling vacation in Flanders and around Bruges comes to an end. We are happy to book additional nights for you in Roeselare.