Lo at the Yser

During this tour in the picturesque Iron Valley you will get almost 40 km of winding roads in front of the wheels. In Stavele you use a seesaw bridge to cross the Yser. You will also find the Court of Commerce, an eatery. Maybe that's where Flip Kowlier and his band got the name of their popular group.

1. Appointment at the Market in Lo. Departure with the town hall (1566), now restaurant, on your left. Keep the square with the old city pump and the Vatevijver (water reservoir in case of fire, already mentioned in 1404) on your right and cycle past the monastery of the Grauwzusters (with Gothic chapel from 1497), into the Zuidstraat. The street takes you out of the center to an open agricultural landscape. Keep following the road until it makes a right turn. Here two roads turn left. Take the second, the Reningesteenweg, on the right is an electricity cabin. Cross the Grote Beverdijkbeek and cycle past a field chapel. Just past the Ter Walleboom farm is the chapel of Our Lady of the Yser under a tree. Directly at the chapel on the right the street Pereboom to the IJzer. Turn right until you reach the Reningebrug – immediately turn left over the bridge and follow the cycle path. There you cross the river and cross the Boezingegracht a little further. At the first intersection, turn right into Broekstraat. On the T turn right (Oostvleterenstraat) and then take the first left, the Hoflandstraat (further on Woestenstraat). Follow it to the first quadrangle and take the Nieuwstraat to the right. Ignore all side streets and cycle through an agricultural landscape to a T (Halve Reningestraat). Just right and immediately left into Kruisboomstraat. Follow it until you reach the Veurne–Ypres road. Cross it and keep following the Kruisboomstraat on the other side. You cross a first intersection, you bolt past the Vleterhof, ignore a street on the right and cross the Poperingse Vliet. On the T just left and then immediately right. You now follow the Zwijnlandstraat, direction St.-Sixtus Abbey.
2. At the intersection with inn De Sportvriend turn left and then right into Donkerstraat. It will take you to the Trappist abbey of Westvleteren. Lovers can taste the three types of Trappist in De Vrede (closed on Thursdays!). After the abbey, continue to follow the winding Donkerstraat (follow junction 67). At the fork, at junction 67, follow the Nonnenstraat on the right. On the left, you see hop fields. Then you drive through the forest and at the crossroads, at tavern 't Jagershof, you cycle straight ahead. Follow the winding road and cross a first intersection. You are now in the Barlebuizestraat and cycle after a forest strip between meadows and fields. At the next quadrangle, you cycle straight ahead. You come to another road and follow it to the right. Then take the second street on the left, the Bromstraat. Follow it to the T and turn right. You still follow the Bromstraat. Cross the next intersection and follow the Hondspootstraat on the other side.
3. After a bend, take the Westsluisstraat on the left. Follow this winding road to the end where it flows into a wider new road. Continue straight ahead, in the direction of the neo-Gothic church of Stavele. Just before Taverne De Plaisance take the Ijzerstraat on the left. At 't Hof van Commerce you cross the Ijzer. At the crossroads with a chapel, turn right (this is a two-lane lane without cycle paths). After more than 3 km you cycle past 't Jagershof (house on the left of the road) and, opposite a linden drive, take the Clepstraat on the left. Enjoy the tranquility of the landscape, pass an old chapel, ignore a road on the left and then cross the Ypres–Ostend road. You now follow the narrow Collaertshillestraat and after a right-angled bend, take the first road on the left. After a turn, cross the road to Lo and Diksmuide. Follow the winding road until you can turn right into the Vrijestraat (do not drive too far, turn into where the electricity cables hang to the left of the track), a rather narrow concrete road without a street sign. At the end turn right into the Burgweg and on the T turn left, direction Lo. At the Markeymolen (1797), a wooden standard mill with three attics, you cross the Ijzer. Cycle past the West Gate (14th century) and the Caesar's tree, a yew (or venom tree) to which Julius Caesar is said to have tied his horse during his journey to Britain. There are two-thousand-year-old yews, but this one is certainly not that old. A little further you reach the market square with on the left the St. Peter's Church, a three-aisled Gothic hall church, already named in 1119.