Day 14: Hattem to Deventer

This was our last major bike day.  We had considered going one more day further, to Zutphen, but the forecast for the following day was rain, and we had been to Deventer and liked it there.  So we decided to spend two nights in Deventer, and do a day-trip if the weather was decent.

We took the same ferry back across the river and headed south.

Note the flag - the wind was still there; if anything, it was stronger.  It was a west wind, but sometimes our path turned west and we headed straight into it. A couple times we just got off the bikes and walked.  When it was a cross-wind, it was strong and gusty enough to make it hard to keep a straight course.  But the rain held off.  We saw some rain clouds go across our path, but well to our south.  When we stopped for hot chocolate in the town of Wijhe, we wondered whether we should stop at the next town, Olst, and take the train the rest of the way.

Along the way we saw a number of artificial nesting platforms for storks, most of them occupied.

When we got to Olst, we took another break, bought some postcards, and debated what to do.  We finally decided to go on by bike.  It turned out well - the route went inland, along paths and roads that were mostly sheltered from the worst of the wind.  We came back to the river at the very end, and just before the main part of Deventer we came to our bed and breakfast, a place we had been to before back in 2010 and really liked.  After 40 kilometers of riding, it was a welcome sight indeed.

Day 13: Kampen to Hattem

We started off from Kampen by crossing the IJssel on this bridge.  It looks like it's a lift bridge, but we never actually saw it open.

It was a windy day, and the wind was out of the southwest, which meant that we were frequently traveling into the wind.  It was strong enough that we had to downshift and thus slow down, sometimes to 8 km per hour. 

Much of this day's ride was on top of a dike.  The land on the river side was mostly pastures.

For part of the way we had to take a detour due to construction.  It seems that they are widening and deepening the flood plain, so that they can better handle high water.  It's a big river, one of the outlets for the Rhine.

At the end of the ride, we took a small ferry to Hattem, another one of those sleepy towns, and stayed with a couple there. 

Day 12: Blokzijl to Kampen

We had a somewhat difficult night in Blokzijl - no idea why; I don't think there was anything wrong with the place or the room.  But we had a nice breakfast, brought up to our room.  While we were getting ready to leave, it started to rain.  It had pretty much stopped when we left, but just after we got out of town, it started again.  It wasn't heavy, but it was a shower, not  a drizzle.  After about 7 km I was feeling pretty unhappy despite the nice rain jacket, and regretting not bringing rain pants.  It started to let up as we came to a national park visitor center near Sint-Jannsklooster, and we decided to stop there.  We had a nice chat with the people there, and, since the rain had let up, took a short walk along a boardwalk.

The area there used to be full of peat.  People dug up this peat and used it for fuel.  Water collected in the pits left by digging the peat.  Over the centuries, the wet pits grew until there was very little land left, just where the villages were.  Then, sometime in the 1700s, a big storm came through and the villages were wiped out.  Now there are a bunch of lakes that are gradually filling up with vegetation - a great habitat for birds.

We packed up to leave, and it started raining again.  So we stuck around for a half-hour video and ate our lunch.  By that time it was thinking about being sunny, so off we went.

On the way, we came upon this rather unusual picnic table.  We weren't sure what it's supposed to be about, but we found out later (stay tuned).

Kampen is another one of those towns that was a major port before they took away the water.  For old-town buffs, it is paradise.  Lots of interesting old buildings, including three of the old town gates, like this one:

We stayed with a very nice retired woman in a house facing the IJssel river.  She served us the usual sumptuous Dutch breakfast of bread, cold meat, cheese, jam, and boiled egg.

Day 11: to Meppel (train) and Blokzijl (bike)

We packed up our stuff, rode to the station, and caught a train for Meppel (most trains in the Netherlands run every half-hour).  We got off the train, figured out which way to go with only a moderate amount of stress, and headed out.  Much of the riding was on bike paths along (or even between) canals, like this one.

The most interesting place along the way was the village of Giethoorn.  The old part of this village has no roads, just walking/biking paths and canals.  Lots of bridges, of course, and all high enough that boats can get under them.

The comparisons to Venice are inevitable, though Giethoorn is on a much smaller scale.  It does attract a lot of tourists, though.

We stayed the night with a couple of women in the town of Blokzijl.  Blokzijl used to be a major port on the Zuider Zee, which seems weird because if you look at a map it's way inland.  The explanation is that the land between Blokzijl and the former Zuider Zee (now the IJsselmeer) didn't used to be there - the Dutch created it by draining parts of the IJsselmeer.  So the old line "buy land, they aren't making any more of it" does not necessarily apply here!

Day 10: back to the Netherlands

In which we take the train from Bremerhaven back to Groningen, and visit a small community near that city.  Details coming soon.

Day 9: Monday in Bremerhaven

Woke up and had a very relaxed breakfast with Hella in the guest room.  We called a taxi and went to the tallest building in the city.  Kind of a rip-off!  It cost 3 Euros to get into the building.  You take an elevator up to the 20th floor and walk out onto a platform to view the city.  When you have to pee, good luck!  No toilet in the place and the elevator will only stop on the 1st and 20th floors.  The view was pretty nice and so was the weather, but the toilet thing was too much.  As Hella said, Well, I don't ever have to do that again!  We hoofed it over to another building and only had to pay 1 Euro for the toilet!

Things got better after that - we went to lunch in an old ship - below decks.  It was very nice.  Very full too.  So they gave us what must have been the captain's private dining area.  Good food, too!

Once we got back to Hella's she helped me figure out what I was doing wrong with my knitting project.  She's an expert knitter.  The winter hat I have worn for years was made by her without the aid of a pattern!

We sat out in the garden - a courtyard space of the building she lives in.  Watched her cat who looks alot like Suki and we just plain relaxed!

The 3 of us talked a lot about her new apartment in a senior living complex she is moving to in July.  She is experiencing some of the same issues the CHAT group is looking into for EcoVillagers as we age.

Day 8 : to Bremerhaven by train

I went back and filled in the earlier days - so check them out, too!

We took the train today to Bremerhaven in Germany to visit our friend Hella. We decided not to take our bikes because the station in leer, where we need to change trains, has no elevators and carrying bikes and bags up and down stairs with 5 minutes between trains seems like a bad idea. So we left our bikes in a special bike garage where, for a euro a day, the bike will supposedly be safe from thieves.
The train ride went fine. It turned out that in Leer, the two trains were on opposite sides of the same platform, so we could have taken the bikes. Oh well.
We had a low key time hanging out with Hella - she's 77 years old, has had 2 strokes, and is not up for a lot of traipsing around. She lives in an apartment in a building that has something of a community, so we also have met some of the neighbors. I am enjoying the opportunity to speak German with the folks here.