Johanna
Casual Barge Biking Cruises in Flanders, Belgium
The concept with the Johanna barge is an unescorted barge and cycling experience. We offer official maps of the bike-route-network and all possible information on sites to visit. We can prepare a route, but bikers can select their own route the evening before based on the information we can provide. A prepared list of routes and points of interest will be made available for bikers to take with them.
In some regions of Belgium particularly the northern Flemish speaking provinces they have now installed a system of cycle network routes known as the 'Fietsroutesnetwerk'. This is a system of marking each intersection of the cycle network with a unique number or 'Knoopunt. Signs are then placed along the route giving you directions to the next number intersection of the cycle routes that radiate from the last intersection. At each intersection there is a map showing you all the numbered intersections, once you get the hang of it, it is quite easy to navigate, you just look at the map, decide your route, note down the numbers and then follow the well marked signs. It's basically like cycling by numbers!
Art Cities
8 Days
Veurne to Bruges
Flanders stands for art and famous painters: Rubens, Van Eyck, Memlinck... and the history of their mecenases: counts, dukes, merchants... On our Art Cities tour, we also give you a taste of this rich past. We travel from Bruges to Ghent, both renowned for their large collections of old masters. The tour continues through Dendermonde and Mechelen, once the capital of the Netherlands under the reign of Margaretha of Austria, eventually arriving in the world-renowned university city of Leuven. The boat trip ends in Leuven with it's world renowned university dating from 1425 and UNESCO world heritage sites.
September 20 or 27, 2015
Individual Booking - $3275 per person
Rate includes: nights spent, breakfast, packed lunch, dinner (3 courses) on boat, beer and wine with meals, bed linen, bike rental (with helmets)and cycling maps for cycling the area around the barge (Fietsroutenetwerk maps), gps and pre paid cell phone.
Itinerary: Bruges - Ghent - Dendermonde - Mechelen - Leuven
Fri DAY 1 Bruges
Welcome Aboard. Time to view the charming town.
Sat DAY 2 Bruges - Ghent
Make a visit to the new interactive museum on the market square where you can make a fascinating journey to the distant past, to the glorious world of Bruges in the year 1435.
Sun DAY 3 Ghent
Day to explore. A visit to the Stadsmuseum a must. Housed in a 14thC abbey and a 17thC cloister. Highlights include the 14thC Gothic refectory decorated with pre-Van Eyckian murals. It's one of the most beautiful medieval refectories in Western Europe. Dinner at local restaurant. (Not included).
Mon DAY 4 Ghent- Dendermonde
While cycling, view Abbey of St Paul and Peter, and the out door art site of Begijnhof.
Tues DAY 5 Dendermonde - Mechelen
Mechelen has 336 listed buildings from the 14th century through the 17th century Also a school for church bell ringing.
Wed DAY 6 Mechelen
Full day to explore. Ferry over to the Planckendael (zoo) and Technopolis (an interactive experiment museum).
Dinner at local restaurant. (Not included).
Thur DAY 7 Mechelen - Leuven
Visit to the M in Leuven exhibits classical and modern art produced in Leuven from the Middle Ages to the 19th century.
Fri DAY 8 Leuven
Farewell after breakfast.
