I did this tour some weekends ago but so far didn't find time to post it. So here it is: to the Albertcanal and back:
It sounded like a good idea: cycle along some waterways to Lier and further on to the Albertcanal and back along some former railway tracks that have now been turned into a
cycling path, towards Aarschot - and then some more cycling along the river of the Demer. So far so good. The way to Lier is flat but far from boring (same as in
this tour). The scenic car-free path along Zenne and Nete to Lier is still one of my favourites.
From Lier I followed the "
Kleine Nete" River to the Albertcanal.
This was an excellent 20k or so of cycling, all along this winding small river. Really great, but a bit far from Brussels for an everyday ride.
Similar to cylcing along Zenne or Nete to Lier but with far less cyclists/pedestrians. And also no villages to cross, so it was more or less 20k straight on, full speed. Great stuff.
There are some beautiful old locks along the Kleine Nete - and a bigger one when reaching the Albertcanal. Apparently the river continues flowing underneath the canal (don't ask me how that works). Belgians surely have some expertise when it comes to inland waterways.
The Albercanal is quite a change to the canals around Brussels. It's massive. Really. And lots of traffic. Cycling is so and so. Due to the heavy vessel traffic there's lots of industrial sites along the canal. Not scenic, no good tarmac and so on. But it's just for 10k or so. Quite bearable.
 |
| the Albertcanal |
 |
| cycling path following the alignment of an old railway line |
After the Albertcanal I was already looking forward to speeding along the old railway line down to Aarschot. But the cycling path allowed all but speeding. Not because of too much traffic but because of slowing down every 500m or so when crossing a road because of barriers on both sides of the crossing. In addition the trees to either side of the path were great for some shade on this hot day but their roots had already ruined the tarmac and made the path quite bumpy.
The way back from Aarschot was much better then. Along the Demer. A perfect, brand new cycling path, all the way to Werchter village.
If it hadn't been for the headwind all the way back to Brussels would have been a piece of cake.
No comments:
Post a Comment