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.

 

Tuesdays ride starts in Harderwijk and first heads to Putten.  We stopped at a memorial for the 600 men who were removed from the city by the Nazi's in WWII.  Almost all of them died in concentration camps.  We then biked to Amersfoort where we had lunch and spent some time sight-seeing.  OF interest was the bike parking garage located under a store.  Two tier bike parking.  The large pump station converted from steam power to electricity in 1983.  From there we continued to a fishing village (Spakenburg).  There was no formal or guided walk so Rick and I went by ourselves.  While the town was very small, the number of boats in the harbor was quite spectacular.

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.