Spakenburg to Amsterdam

     Our last day of biking took us first to a star shaped, fortified town of Naarden.  The defensive star shape, from the 17th century allows for sightings of every possible line of attack.  From Naarden we bike along to a castle outside the town of Muiden.  The castle itself in now a tourist destination.  The structure is what we like to think of as a classic shape for all castles.  It has the moat, the draw bridge, high stone walls with touret towers at the corners.  It has been saved from neglect and restored and is now an interactive museum.


















   



We take the afternoon to ride back to Amsterdam along the "Amsterdam-Rhine" canal.  A very flat, easy ride to finish the trip.  We can stay on the barge both Wednesday and Thursday evenings.  Thursday is another day for Rick, Carol, Drew, Annie and myself to take in more sights of the City.  One of the items we wanted to go through was the maritime museum.  Inside they have a huge collection of navigation pieces, world atlas's, and models of yachts.  Outside is a floating full scale sailing ship, the Amsterdam.

Harderwijk to Spakenburg

     We left the barge after breakfast and lunch packing as we normally do and rode to the town of Putten.  There is a small building in a park like setting to honor the 600 men who were removed from town by the Nazi's in WWII.  Very few men survived and returned after the war.
     The morning ride continued to the town of Amersfoort, through expanses of heather fields and past dairy farms.  Well maintained dairy farms.  In Amersfoort we parked our bikes in an under store parking garage that was designed for bicycles only.  The city itself is rather large compared to most of the towns we have been through on the trip.  Rick and I enjoyed some ice cream along with a short sight seeing stroll.

     Back on the bikes and off to the town of Spakenburg.  We do stop to view an old, rather large set of water pumps.  It wasn't until 1983 that the pumps were converted from steam to electric power.  The town of Spakenburg is an old fishing village with a compact and very crowded harbor.  Rick and I enjoyed a self guided walk about the small town after which we enjoyed a game of bocci ball on a lawn near the barge.