Kampenhout, the momentum in

Music, a well-known Belgian vegetable and rural tranquility are the main ingredients of this tour that starts in Kampenhout in Flemish Brabant. This rural municipality is the center of chicory cultivation and cradle of Beethoven's tribe. 500 years ago Jan van Beethoven, the oldest known ancestor of musician Ludwig van Beethoven, lived and worked here. You can find out more about the tasty vegetables in the Witloofmuseum. In addition to this route, there are many other opportunities to discover the Dijleland and the Green Belt.

1. The Gemeenteplein of Kampenhout, at the church (with parking), is our starting place (V). In the middle of the square stands the protected Villa Lucie from 1883, in eclectic style. It houses municipal services. Walk to the left of the church into the Dorpsstraat, until the end. At the former meierij of Kampenhout, the historic building on the corner, turn left into the Brouwerijstraat. The first street on the right is now the Geilroedeweg, well equipped with cycling and walking signs. Keep following this track, which turns into a clinker road in the hamlet of Geelrode.
2. Here you cross the Zeypestraat (no name sign available) to the Beemdstraat. This means that you leave the Witloofpad here and continue to follow the Witlooffietsroute for a while. Turn right, over the Weesbeek and then left again, still in the Beemdstraat. Then you step over the stream and end up in the residential area Heide where you turn left, along with the Witlooffietsroute. Turn right on the T, and then after 200 meters choose the gravel road to the left, the Hoeveweg. At this point, we are also abandoning the cycle route just now. You are standing in one of the most attractive places in the region, the protected Sint-Jozefshoeve (1). You can transplant it to Bokrijk, complete with moat and all. It dates back to the 17th century and is traditionally owned by the city of Mechelen, which today rents it out to a farmer. Until recently there was also a tavern here. Enjoy the wealth of aquatic plants and waterfowl.
3. You turn around the farm and ignore the field road on the left. At the Liesbethbos you turn left with the gravel road and then take the field road on the right until the Leuvense Vaart (so NOT into the Liesbethbos). Step onto the canal dike and walk to the left, direction Mechelen. By the way, you can see the St. Rumbold's Tower in Mechelen looming 10 km away, right in the axis of the almost straight canal. It is 30 km long, one of the oldest canals (1752) in the country and together with its five locks protected as industrial heritage. Very fishy and busy cycling on both banks.
4. At the bottom of the dike you will come across tavern De Wilg (2), with some ornamental ponds. A relay (with irregular opening hours) for canal cyclists and walkers. Further on, the Molenbeek flows under the canal. This shows the artificial decay of the waterway and the need for locks. You are now approaching one of those locks, the sas van Boortmeerbeek (3). But a good 100 meters before that you descend the dike in a sharp bend. Via the Maenrot (no name sign), with chapel, you arrive in the Langestraat (no name sign): turn left in it. The Langestraat curves first to the right and then to the left; in that second bend you choose the Papenstraat on the right. The last house looks like a NATO fulcrum, surrounded as it is by impressive antennas. Here lives an avid radio amateur who covers the entire planet via short and long wave.
5. You pass the Meerbeekwegel, then Bennekensweg, and just past a small forest you pass the street sign 'Begijnenwegel'. A little further on, take the Kleinveldekensweg diagonally to the right. Where this unpaved path crosses the asphalt road Begijnenstraat, you walk on the asphalt to the left. You come back into the Langestraat (no name sign), turn right here. Just past the long bend and right across the no. 22 B you turn left into the narrow Lauterweg (no name sign). You are now back on the Witloof hiking trail. Right across house no. 33 you follow these indications to the right into the Wippeweidesteenweg (no name sign) and after 100 meters diagonally right into the Kampelaarstraat (no name sign). If that street makes a right turn, you leave the Witloof hiking trail again, turn left and immediately take back right an earth road that runs along a ditch. 50 meters after the start of a grove you have to turn left and so you pick up again on the Witloofpad. You see the village bowl appear, and via the Rusthuisweg it goes straight to the striking Kampenhout rest home. There to the left brings us back to the starting point