The Ardennes by bike (1972)
In 1972, with three friends from school, I went to the Ardennes in Belgium and Luxembourg to make a youth hostelling
tour by bike. It was a tour of fun, laughter and shortage of money. The tour
started in Utrecht.
The Tour
- JH De Mijlpaal (Vught), by the old ferry at Culemburg, Geldermalsen, 's-Hertogenbosch.
- JH 't Sangershoes (Beegden), near Roermond, which we reached after a warm
day through "De Peel".
- JH 't Heemet (Vaals), via Valkenburg (Cauberg), Gulpen and the hills of the
Vijlener forest near the south border of dutch Limburg and Belgium.
- AJ Beverce (Malmedy), via the Vaalserberg (three land point; highest point of
Holland: 321m), Eupen and the climb to the Baraque Michel (highest point of Belgium:
674m). The last part was the (wet) descend to Malmedy, where you could pass
the youth hostel easily with that velocity.
- AJ Vielsalm, a very easy trip.
- AJ Clervaux, our first YH in Luxembourg. Here we visited the castle.
- AJ Lultzhausen (Wiltz), just near Esch sur Sure. Esch has a nice lake of which
the dam offers a good opportunity for a save and fast descend of the surrounding hills.
Our convential bikes were quite trembling when they reached 60km/h.
- AJ Hollenfels (Mersch), again an easy trip. The visit to Mersch was obligatory
because the family of one of my friends had holiday there.
- AJ Virton, back to Belgium Luxembourg. We had to repare some brakes this
day.
- AJ Herbeumont, at the Semois river in the south of Belgium. We visited
tiny Avioth in France (with its large church) and entered Belgium again at the Abbey of
Orval (at that time we were not yet familiar with the famous beers of Belgium).
- AJ Bouillon, with the ruine of the castle of Godfried (Godefroid), the legendary
crusader.
- AJ Han sur Lesse, where we visited the nice caves. A small detour was made
to visit the place between Graide and Porcheresse where I had had one week holiday with my
family in 1964 (a time of black and white postcards).
- AJ Givet, in France at the Maas (Meuse) river.
- AJ Namur (Namen), an easy and quick tour along the Maas river. We visited
the fort at Dinant.
- AJ Huy (Hoei), a hostel in a very large house.
- JH Demergouw (Diest), back in dutch speaking Flanders, so don't speak French.
The first words at the YH were: "No monsieur! Ik ben Mijnheer!".
- JH De Hilver (Hilvarenbeek), just south of Tilburg in the Netherlands. The next
day we had to finish the tour by going to Utrecht. There was no more money available,
we had lost several kilogrammes of wheight. The whole tour had cost me HFl 200.-- (dutch
guilders).
Some good Youth Hostel links
- Auberges de Jeunesse de Belgique francophone
- Centrale des Auberges de Jeunesse Luxembourgoises
- Nederlandse Jeugdherberg Centrale (Dutch Youth Hostel Association)
- Youth Hostels worldwide
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