Hey gang! Taking advantage of Eurostar's new-and-improved policy on taking bikes with you, i'm gonna meet up with some friends in Amsterdam by taking the Eurostar to Brussels and then jumping on my bike. Has anyone cycled between Brussels and Amsterdam before? And routes or tips you can recommend?

Cheers all !!!

Never done it, but good luck. Be careful of Belgian drivers (not good! especially in Brussels) and take rain gear.

Yes.. but I had time up my sleeve. I went west to the coast and cycled up from there.
Free time will decide your route really.

West from Brussels is France!
Bloody foreigners ;)

follow the canals and rivers they have nice cycle routes (if boring - think straight and long). head to gent and follow the big river/canal straight north to teneuzen (holland) that'll swing you round zeeland, its very impressive riding along a 5km dam...

did someting similar just this summer just head north cycle tracks are awesome in both holland and belgium car drivers are very considerate they will wait 30 seconds at a junction just to let the bike pass although they don't like you cycling on the road if there is a cycle path got beeped at numerous times when on the main road when there was a cycle path just to the side. follow the canals if you can get to utrecht there is a canal that goes all the way to the dam

flat as anything you could do it on a chris hoy geared fixed 90 inches no problems

i used to use the eurostar to Brussels and i think a ticket allows you to travel to any other destination in Belgium for free (you may have to state the destination when you book?) on the same day as the eurostar ticket.
just get another train to the border :-)

MrSmith is right, the eurostar ticket is valid to any other train station in Belgium on the same day - last week I went from Brussels to Zingem (via Ghent) on my eurostar ticket. You do need to buy a bike ticket for the connecting train though (€5 to any destination I think). The canal paths and cycle tracks around Ghent are great, really wide and new smooth tarmac, and there are the Ronde van Vlaanderen routes signposted everywhere. (Plug: http://www.lepuretlimpur.be/)

Cool cool thanks for the tips guys, particularly about the free train to anywhere in Brussels. Thats a nice option to have, as I only have one day to do it, and Brussels - Amsterdam is about 150 miles. A heck of a lot for me, even if it is flat. So that gives me the option of cycling from the Dutch border, which might be much more civilized. A Belgian dude I met who lived in Brussels said getting out of Brussels is 'orrible so maybe giving that a miss would be an idea.

Oh and Marie - can you give me a link to some more information about this Eurostar Belgian Validity thing, so I can check the terms and conditions and stuff? Thanks!

No it's not you muppet.
Gent is west of Brussels and last time I checked it was still in Belgium. Same goes for Brugge and Cortrai. Apolos for mixing up the froggy and Belgi naming conventions foreign scum.

Owned by the worst navigator on the forum! Ha! :P

Errr... oh yeah, Google. Guess i'm a little lazy, doh! Anyway there it is in black and white. I think I might start from Antwerp - that looks nice.

The only cool thing I remember in Antwerp is a little bar called De Kulminator (or similar).
The beer menu was fucking huge!




you get the idea.. ;)

http://mapofeurope.com/

Yeah right!
Gent is North West of Brussels.
Lille is West of Brussels, and last time I checked it was in France.

You can have your title back now :)

Err.. try again.. DIRECTLY west of Brussels is Cortrai, which is in Belgium. Oh and North West is still West. Double Navigation Fail. :P
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl...3,2.449951&z=9

Yeah well, I ain't playing anymore. And I was taking the A8 from the ring road, and that leads to Lille, so there ner!

And anyway you've gone way down in my estimation. Posting pictures of girly, fruit flavoured beer, I thought you would have known better.....sad sad times :(

Directions aren't governed by roads. West is west is west is west... :P

It's okay for blokes to drink fruit beers in Belgium. I was scared at first but eventually tried it.. along with every other beer they'd ever made :) Drink them over here though and you'll get slapped.

I posted the fruit beer pic and not the Devil beer pic on purpose to see who would pick up on it. Goal! :)

Is that what they told you?
You can also find drinking establishments in London where they'll tell you that drinking pink gin is okay! Doesn't mean it is though ;)

In Flanders, they have a network of cycling routes, once you plan your route, you just remember the number of the nodes so you don't have to look at the map constantly. The routes are supposed to be fairly safe, slightly scenic yet not too much detour.
some guy made a web app for it, but it's in dutch and it sucks
http://www.fietsnet.be/routeplanner/default.aspx

Damn, having read this I want to go to Belgium now.

how about perusing the north sea cycle route, just start looking for signs to amsterdam once you get to Den Haag

I've never heard of pink gin. I'm probably better for it.
Anyway, beer is beer is beer. I'll drink it all.
Fuck, I'll even drink wine if I'm drunk enough already.