2 Best Sights in Vlaamse Ardennen, Ghent and the Leie

Tour of Flanders Museum

Fodor's choice

Cycling is everything in this part of Flanders. It's here that the famous Tour of Flanders (known as "De Ronde") culminates, and the city even has its own museum dedicated to the race. Regardless of whether you get shivers at the sight Eddie Mercx's racing glove or care little about the sport, it draws you in nicely. Audio guides explain what you're seeing; there's even a virtual cycling machine to give you a taste of the Tour. It's not just about the race, either, and gives an interesting overview of the Flemish Ardennes, whose hills, history, and isolation made it the perfect playground for the Tour organizers. At the ticket desk, you can also organize bike hire and cycling tours of the area.

MOU – Museum Oudenaarde and the Flemish Ardennes

Oudenaarde's town hall is a dazzling expression of just how wealthy the city was by the 16th century. Even today it takes the breath away, and once prompted the novelist Victor Hugo to declare: "There is not a single detail [of it] that is not worth looking at." The main building is adjoined by the city's UNESCO-listed Brabantine-Gothic belfry, etched in elaborate hunting scenes and flocks of angels. Within, you'll find tourist information and the city museum (MOU), the centerpiece of which is a collection of tapestries hanging in the adjoining 14th-century cloth hall. These were Oudenaarde's golden ticket. By the 1500s, the fame of its artisans had spread across Europe and their work fetched high prices. Audio tours circumvent the Dutch info plaques, elaborating the secrets stitched within the hangings and what made them so prized. Less successful is the rather disparate silver collection, though some fine examples of curiosity cabinets and the strange objects coveted by the wealthy make it worth your perusal.