Something I've always wanted to do but always managed to skip in one way or another is riding one of the famous Bloesemroutes ("route of the Blossoms") in the province of Limburg. Every year around this time most of the fruit trees start to bloom, giving the landscape beautiful colors to ride through. The province of Limburg is famous for its Knooppuntennetwerk, a very clever network of bicycle routes connected with numbered intersections. This allows the bicyclist to plan his route through these numbered knooppunten, all you have to do is to remember which number to ride to. Small numbered road signs in blue are placed all over these routes, making it easy to ride from one point to another. Boards with maps of the routes are placed at many intersections, so there is no need to bring a map by yourself.
Anwyay, last Friday a riding buddy and myself drove a car with our bikes to Borgloon, one of the many places where one can start to ride the Katarakt route, the most famous Bloesemroute.
The weather was ideal for biking : a mild breeze and lots of sun. Total distance of the planned route was around 75 km, but I think we took a wrong turn at some point and were close to our starting point after only 62 km. We still had the time, so we decided to ride another loop around Borgloon, making a total of 82 km. As expected, the scenery was beautiful with lots of sloping landscapes through fields of blooming fruit trees. Not too many other bikers yet, as it was on a working-day and still early April. A couple of weeks later and during the weekends, lots of people show up to ride their bikes over there, making some of the routes really crowded. Not so last Friday. We really had a good time and it made me long for more bike trips over there ....
My riding buddy near one of the boards near the route ....
