My tailings from Eisden

On Saturday morning, 23/01/2021, very early (7:45), I was at the station of Tienen for a train ride to Hasselt.

Only one cycling companion was present at the station, so we rode the cycling trip to the spoil heaps of Eisden with just two cyclists.

The train was right on time, and exactly as planned, we arrived in Hasselt around 8:30 to start the cycling trip to Eisden.

The sun was high in the sky, and it was quite pleasant to cycle under the winter sun for almost the entire day.

To get to Eisden quickly, the first part went straight along the Albert Canal heading east.

After cycling 15 km along the canal, we reached the beautiful forest strip near Zutendaal.

And it was much more pleasant to cycle there, even though we did encounter a few muddy patches in the woods here and there.

In the midst of the woods, we took our first break.

My cycling partner had very delicious warm homemade hot chocolate that he had freshly made that morning from real fondant chocolate.

Around 12:00, we arrived in the village of Eisden and a little further on at the stately buildings and the mine shafts of the former coal mine of Eisden.

A little further, just before we would begin the climb of the "Lange terril," we stopped to take a look at the beautifully renovated mining site.

The climb of the "Lange terril" went quite well, not too steep, and in most places, it was over hardened paths that were reasonably rideable.

As usual, I took a break halfway up the climb (90m) to catch my breath and also to take the next panoramic photo of the center of Eisden.

The rest of the climb went very smoothly without any noteworthy problems along the way.

Only the very last part to the top was very muddy, probably caused by the abundant rain of the last few days.

And we were definitely not alone up there on the spoil heap, as we encountered numerous (corona?) walkers along the way.

After the climb, there was a steep but very beautiful descent with quite a few hairpin turns.

After climbing the "Lange terril," the intention was to also climb the nearby "Tweeling terril."

However, the path to this terril with two peaks was blocked by a gate and a kilometer-long fence due to a building project for vacation homes.

We had the impression that the entire area around the "Tweeling terril" has become completely private property and is no longer accessible to the average person.

Further info: http://www.trekkings.be/hogekempenconnecterra.html

Along an alternative less interesting road (N75), we cycled to Niel bij As, where we had our picnic lunch right next to the road in a private forest (access prohibited).

And again, my cycling partner had some warm chocolate left in his thermos, so we were able to enjoy a nice break while standing up.

On the way back, near Genk, at the vacation domain Kattevenia, we found a mobile food and drink stall open.

And they had delicious soup that was very hot and also well-seasoned.

The last 20 km of the cycling trip back to the station in Hasselt initially went completely as planned.

However, in the busy metropolitan area of Hasselt, at one point, we could not cross the bridge over the Albert Canal (forbidden for cyclists).

This forced us to take an unexpected detour of several kilometers to get over this body of water.

Due to this delay, we managed to catch the 16:20 train back to Tienen just in time.

The conductor had already given a whistle signal when we were still hoisting our bikes up the high stairs of the train.

Around 17:00, completely according to plan, we were back in Tienen with 79.5 km on the clock.

We cycled very leisurely today at an average speed of just 13.4 km/h, spending 5 hours and 56 minutes on our bikes.

And this despite the fact that we only had to contend with 356.6 meters of elevation gain, since we only gained elevation while climbing the "Lange terril."