This post will cover the past two days as there wasn't much in the way of new information.  On Saturday evening the walk was a boat trip through the town of Giethoorn.  The canals are the streets with a speed limit of 12 K/H.  The houses are all very well maintained with lots of beautiful flowers.  For the locals, one will travel by boat or walk.  Each house has a steep bridge to walk over so as to enter their property.  In this area the past agriculture involved digging peat out of the ground to help fuel Amsterdam.  Later the areas filled with water.  The canals and lakes have the same depth, about three feet.
     Sundays ride made a loop through a different national park called "De Weerribben"  A real flat ride.  What with the dikes that have been built, part of this land we are in is below sea level.  We stopped for lunch at a park that told about the thatch harvest and the thatching of roofs along with the plant and animal life in the area.  This being Sunday and also still a part of the "Bible Belt," not many business were open.  We rode into a very strong headwind for the final two hours.  The city walk around Kampen included the fact that the town was started in 1600's  Off of one building, used to be the city building hung a full size model of a cow.  The story was to poke fun of the frugal nature of the townspeople.  The backside of the building had the bars from the original jail, along with the barred showing area.  Words on the mail slots were pointed out
 "nee"  and "ja" No or yes.  The first indicated you did not want junk mail, the second indicated yes you wanted the town fliers.  Most had nee   nee.  Somehow the postman had to know what he was delivering.
     Monday turned into a memorable day with rain falling  quite heavy in the afternoon.  The foul weather gear came in handy.  In the morning, we stopped at a small town named Elburg.  It is a new town, rebuilt in 1396.  Unusual for Holland is the fact that city streets and blocks are all square, like in the U.S.  After the coffee break, we rode into another portion of the huge park the Veluwe.  Came in from the other side and went to the Hidden Village.  An area with small "houses" in the ground that hid many Jews during WWII.  Then off to lunch at a pancake house.  Had one huge apple-raisin pancake.  The afternoon ride was shortened a bit because of the weather.  

Hattem to Giethoorn.   the evening walk around  Hattem  included a stop at a real good chocolate sho p.  It was located just inside the old gate to the city.  Also on this walk we stopped at a sculpture  located in a corner of the old moat.  It was called "Kikkers in Concert"  About twenty frogs with a leader showing some insterments.  We are now rounding the very northern point of our trip.  The heat is also upon us.  The first unique item we came across was a hand pulled ferry to cross a canal.  The old gentleman operating the ferry had an interesting experience several years ago.  A person on the bike and barge trip recognized Jacob the ferry operator.  The two men were actually friends from before WWII, and had not seen each other since that time.  Quite the reunion.  After crossing the canal, we went to the town of Staphort.  We are now in the Netherlands "Bible Belt."  The trim paint has three distinct colors that have meaning.  Blue to keep the evil spirits away, green for fertility and red.  We stopped at a place where a woman showed how she did "Dot Painting"  She puts these patterns on fabric, leather and wood.  We continued on through areas where Peat was dug out years ago to help fuel the large cities.  Those areas have now filled with water making canals rather than roads as means for transportation. After a quick stop for ice cream it was back to the barge.

AD.

Friday,  in the town of Deventer.  The town itself was settled about 800 AD.  The first permanent church was built around 1000.  Nearby was a mint to make coins and a water well where everyone seemed to congregate. The barge did not move today, so we were encouraged to get out and see the sights of how a dutch town actually works.  It is quite interesting to see how cars and yes even large trucks (think cement trucks) negotiate the narrow streets.  I will combine some of the walking tour we had last night with today's activities.  This morning was the farmers market.  The whole square was transformed into booths or trailers selling all manor of produce, cheese toys and clothing.  I got a new backpack.  Last night the square had music (loud and for young folk).  Just goes to show how varied and used the town square is even today.  Another church )this with the patron saint of St Nickolas) was built about 1209.  The "new" spires were added in the 1500's.  Later in the morning we toured the Weigh House.  Built in 1528 its initial funtion was to weigh all of the items that were traded in the area.  This town being in the far eastern area of the Netherlands was on the trade route between western and eastern Europe NGreat vies of the city.  down below ow the building is is a museum.   After lunch we went to the "Etty Hillesum" museum.  She was  a Jewish girl that kept a diary for herself.  She did not survive the concentration camps of WWII.  Lastly we went to the huge church with a tower we could climb.Great views  The floor of the church had the crypts of people long since passed.  We were told that the skeletons had been removed. Back to the barge for our dinner cruse and a new location to bike from tomorrow.  We are all lamenting the fact that the tour is already half over.

Zutphen to Deventer
     Warm to hot ride today from Zutphen up to the Royal residense, called Het Loo.  They call it a "castle"  but it looks just like a huge estate house.  We started by touring the gardens,  Fountains, fruit trees, sculpted hedges, perfect lawn grass, and of course  lots of flowers.  Next was inside, wow.  There is a very large stable, with tack and uniforms from earlier times.  Next to the stables were the carages and autos used by the royals.  We then took in the interior of the castle, lots of rooms all very well appointed.  Large paintings, really nice and detailed finish work..After the castle we headed back to the barge.  Went past a small airport that was busy with sky divers and a glider flight.  Stopping for an afternoon beer on the way.

Arnhem to Zutphen  Rode uphill to the Dutch Open Aie Museum  We spent 2:30 or all morning there.  The museum was basically a recreation of a dutch town and conditions from the 1700's the mid 1900's  There is also a very good combination film and scenes of dutch history.  After the museum we rode up a "mountain" as it was described to us (only 100m),  the view was good and we also had our lunch on the "summit.  Back down to the river IJssel and the town of Bronkhorst.  A tiny farming community where we stopped for some shopping and a beer.  Back on the bikes and down the IJssel to the barge tied up at the town of Zutphen.

Arnhem, The Veluwe and the Kroller-Muller Museum.  Arnhem is the town that was fought over in WWII and memorialized in the book and movie,"A Bridge to Far."  We biked up hill from town to the park. They do not want cars in the park so you can take a white park bike from the entrance (they have lots)  Riding through the park reminded me of the Yellowstone Park in Montana USA Lots of dry areas surrounded by forest.  The park was a "donation" by the Kroller-Muller family to the Dutch.  (after the family ran out of money.  Saw a very nice hunting lodge and the museum.  Helene Kroller-Muller was quite the art collector, lots of Van Gogh's and such.  Part of the group then biked to the Airborne Museum which is about the Arnhem battle and the people who lived there at that time.  Back to the barge which was still moored on the Rhine near the bridge.  

Waking up in Wijk bij Duurstede we will bike to Arnhem.  We spent breakfast motoring up the Nederrijn to locks and some impressive weirs.  The weirs can change the direction and amount of water going to either the Rhine or the Ij.  Once on the bikes we went into a nearby town with a huge castle and moat.  The town is Amerongen.  This was the place that the German King fled after the first world war.  It now started to rain.  First of the trip.  Bike into the Veluwe, a national park.  We stopped at a military cemetery for Dutch soldiers from WWII.  We learned that the country has a Memorial Day on May 4th and a Liberation Day on May 5th.  Then on past pasture land and an old brick factory.  Bricks, bricks bricks everywhere.  The roads, the buildings even the bike paths are brick.  They get the clay from the rivers.  For the roads, the lifespan of a brick road is some 200 years.  Also, if they have to be dug up, the bricks can be reused or put back onto the road, a savings of material costs.  Continuing on, we were on paved bike paths which were narrow but next to a two rut dirt road used by farm machinery.  Bikes have a real high place in this country.  We stopped at an old castle for a beer break then back to the Angeline.    

Sunday July 13 , 2014
Ultrecht to Wijk bij Duurstede   (most "J's are silent in the Dutch language)
The city was founded by the Romans in 47 AD, this comes into play later.  Both the long and short loops started together with a slow ride through town  The town is quiet on Sunday mornings.  Stopped a few times most notably at a really old, huge church.  Pictures to follow when I get home.  At this church which took 200 years to build,has an inscribed rock  about  4 ft x 4 ft as a gift from Denmark  It was carved in 960 and give in the 1930's.  Also of interest is the fact that there is a burial in the church square of some 17 gay men who were killed for their "sin" of being gay back in the 1930's.  Then out into the country to tour an old fort.  It was initially built as a part of a "water defense system" which could flood miles and miles of ground to knee deep depth to stop advancing armies.  The system was started in 1815 so it did have some uses.  The fort itself was used in World War II, now it is a part of a park..  Just out front of the old fort is a wooden watch tower, a replica of the one built by the Roman army back in the 800's  Off again to view a rather unusual site, a pyramid that was built by Napolian's army.  They were there for about twenty years and became board so the generals decided to build a sod pyramid.  Continued on to an old castle with a moat.  a field away was the stone watch tower.  Then for a stop for icecream and on to the barge.

 This church was built by the Catholic Spanish invaders, later becoming a Protestant Church, now maintained (as most huge buildings) by the national government

 The carved rock as stated above.

 A fort just outside Utrecht that was a part of the "Water Defense Line"  It did work to keep out solders wearing armor or/on horses.  The whole system protected many provinces.

 Napolian's Generals thought this sod pyramid was a good idea.

 Above is an old castle, now privately owned, and below is the watch tower  located several hundred meters away.

 The windmill located on Wijk bij Duurstede's entrance gate.  The town was fought over by the Frisians, Franks and finally the Vikings in the 9th century.  It was an important city back then.

Saturday  July 12, 2014
We had breakfast at the hotel then got on the tram and back to the waterfront at Central Station.  From there we walked to the harbor, found the barge dropped off our stuff and went in search of food from a grocery store.  Back to the barge.  About one we were off and down the Rhine-Amsterdam canal for an hour cruse to the start of the bike portion at the town of Nigtevecht.  Our shake down ride of 17 kilometers was mostly down a one lane road which was crowded with all 30W bike riders and cars occasionally coming from both directions.  Passed an old working windmill, a small meandering river (Vecht) with some old mansions, to the town of Breukelen.  Side point here... Many people left this town to travel to America and setteled in that is now Brooklyn N.Y. After crossing the Breukelen bridge we ended the ride near Utrecht.  At that nights talk we learned a bit of history, namely why the nation is called Holland.  Back in the 1600's Many of the wealthy dutch traders said they were from Holland.  Holland is actually the name of just two provences west and north of Amsterdam)  The name stuck.

The first working windmill we came across.  Originally their main use was to move water.  Later they were used for everything else.

 An interesting gutter decoration along the route.

 This is a "Tea House"  Note the boat access to the canal.  This structure was used for entertaining, separate from the main house

And here is the original Breukelen Bridge, which we crossed.  Brooklyn N.Y. got its name from this village.

Day 2 in Amsterdam was a museum day.  After breakfast at the hotel we walked over to the RIJKSMUSEUM.  Since we had purchased a "museum pass" yesterday we were able to get right into all three of the museums we wanted to view today.  We only spent the morning there so we only got to take in the lowest of the four levels, it's a massive place.  Basically the RIJKS holds the history of the nation.  Got on the tram for a lunch downtown at an open air restaurant.  In the afternoon we did the Amsterdam museum followed by another power nap back at the hotel.  In the evening we all went to an Indonesian restaurant, for me a new experience.  The last museum was the Van Gogh museum.  I bet art people could really go for that tour, me not so much.

Amsterdam

Here we are in Amsterdam outside the Rijksmuseum.

       This is the hotel we stayed in for the first two days in Amsterdam.

      Walking around town. Notice the soccer ball and banners. The Netherlands were still in the World Cup at this time. Also take note of the closeness of the buildings.  These former warehouses are now apartments.

Bike and Barge Trip

Rick and I left Seattle at about 2:00 P.M. on Wednesday July 9 2014 for a “Bike and Barge.”  Nine hours later, (which now becomes 8:30 in the morning) with the sun never out of sight we landed in Amsterdam.  We were fed multiple times on that plane in spite of the fact that the itinerary showed just one lunch.  Upon arrival we met our sister Carol, her partner Dru and their friend Annie, and then went to the city from the airport into downtown.  Once there we bought 48 hour tram tickets and proceeded to our hotel.  By then it was off to lunch, not being very hungry, it was nice to see rather small portions served.  Back to the hotel for a 2 hour power nap.  We then became real tourists by getting on the tram, headed back downtown and walked around for three hours.  Dinner out at an Argentine restaurant.  Back to the hotel for an early to bed to finish the first day of the trip.

Last Night was the 4th of July.  Lake Stevens has a bit of history with "civil disobediance".  Here are some pictures of the event.  Very few of the fireworks that were set off around the lake were either safe nor sane.

Near Wyatt Park

Near Our Dock