The 8 of Rijmenam (51km)

This is a flat and pleasant cycling loop for the whole family, with several notable sights. You can start the loop at any place or, if necessary, drive in reverse.
The GPS of this loop starts at the train station in Hofstade and goes via a flat 8 past Mechelen, Muizen, Bonheiden and Rijmenam (= the center of this 8-shaped loop), then past Keerbergen, Haacht, Wespelaar, Kampenhout, Boortmeerbeek, back over the center Rijmenam, then via Hever back to the starting point in Hofstade.

This flat route is special in two respects:
We drive past 2 beautiful castles (Castle Befferhof and Castle Zellaer) and many beautiful farmlands.
There will also be driving along the heaviest structural works of the KW line. This KW line was a defensive belt east of Mechelen with the intention of stopping a German invasion as had been done on the Yser Front in the 1st World War. Underwater settlement with Dyle water and stopping German tanks was the intention (See http://www.kwlinie.be/ and http://www.go2war2.nl/artikel/1095). These constructions were started just before the 2nd WW, but turned out to be worthless during this short (18-day) war because they were not used.

This defensive belt used many steel structures, and it was therefore called the 'Iron Wall' by the Germans.
For this reason, the bicycle loop runs several times along railways (so-called 'Iron Roads', translated from French 'Chemin de fer').
But also the Dijle itself, which had to flood the fields east of the Iron Wall, the low-lying fields on the Dijle and some bunkers are not missing in this loop.
The beginning and end of the loop also goes briefly along the Nekker and the Bloso domain Hofstade where the sand for the embankments of the railway lines was mined. For the same reason, the Arsenal in Mechelen is also not missing from the route (here trains get their major periodic maintenance or are modernized). This workshop dates from 1835 and is perhaps the oldest on the European mainland.
Some other details (chapels, meanders, porches) are also included in this loop.

This makes this a simple, wonderful, educational (and for a large part traffic-free) loop in the wide area around the Dijle between Mechelen and Haacht.