Roekel to Zutphen

June 14 - Day 9

62 km                                                                               

Total distance on the trip 495.44

3:40 hrs  moving time

168m  elevation                                                                      

Total elevation 1081m

Weather 

After a cool wet evening we had another wonderful breakfast to fuel us for the day and set off for the Oude IJssel (Ijssel River)   Which we had been told was very pretty and worthy of a pedal along by a trusted source. It was a cold morning with constant threats of rain. We cycled along the northern part of De Hoge Veluwe, constantly monitoring the rain clouds.

The accuweather app minute cast, was our friend today. 

The area was very pretty to ride through, with some lovely houses and small roads. 

We arrived a very sad and significant place in the Netherlands, where 300 people were murdered during WW2 by a Nazi SS officer & company. Look up Woeste Hoeve if you are interested in this story. We looked at the rain app and decided we had enough time to get to Dieren for morning snacks if we moved quickly. 

Just along from the hamlet / restaurant there is a monument dedicated to the people in the resistance who were involved and died. But the incident led to the entire town being murdered by the Nazi's. The liberation route is a route we have come across before, and we think we might like to bike its entirety to immerse ourselves in this history. 

Whilst heading along a cycling path, through some paddocks we came across this monument, it is a monument to hydrotherapy called the Priessnitzmonument. The monument is on private land.

Our route took us through some amazingly beautiful forests, all with well maintained cycle ways. 

Above were some of the barns and houses we saw along the way.  It was still quite cool and threatening to rain. 

We made it to Dieren just in time for a hot chocolate, some cake and to avoid the rain. We could not get wet again as our clothes from yesterday had not dried completely and we had no more dry cycling gear apart from what we were wearing.

After the rain stopped, we headed out into the sunshine (not yet warm), a headed toward the Ijssel river. We passed the Gazelle bike factory (The largest number of bikes in NL are gazelles), which excited Wayne a little bit. 

We had to pay 1 euro to be taken across  the river on this little punt. The route markers were all along the cycling routes.

Some of scenery we passed as we rode along the levy. 

The castle was spotted across the river ...

There is so much history along the river. 

As we approached Zutphen we saw an entire township with solar panels on their roof. (bottom left image above). The church tower and a canon. I had a feeling about this town, and really wanted to stop to have a look. We had not made any plans for accommodation so we decided to stop and have a look around. It is a really special town. 

We sat at this high spot along the river for a snack and had a look at the canons, we then decided to go for a little ride through the old part of town ...  it was about 1pm.

The town was very tidy, and old. Really old in fact. Zutphen is on part of the Netherlands that is actually above sea level, and was one of the first cities to be developed - it is even older than Amsterdam. It was settled in 300 AD, receiving town rights in 1191 and 1196

The St. Walburgis church is the main attraction in the town and it is beautiful. (Built around 1050)  We decided to go all out and get all the tours in the church as we had time ... go up the tower, see the church detail and even go into the special library with chained books. 

After a few minutes of marvelling at the gorgeous but simple interior of the church we were summoned to head up the tower with one other gentleman who was from Zutphen. The guide spoke in English for us, as the other tourist also spoke English (the Dutch are very cognisant of language and ensuring no one is left out). Westarted walking up the many stairs to get to the bell tower, and it was so worth it.

Each one of the bells is named after one of the Dutch princesses - the largest bell is the oldest princess and so on. 

The views from the tower were spectacular. 

After visiting the tower and really loving the sunshine in the open on the small balconies, we had to get down the stairs as quick as possible to get into the library tour.  We were a bit late, but all was good. The guide spoke in Dutch for the most part, and then translated for us into English. All of the other tourists were Dutch. 

When we had finished in the library it was about 5pm and 30 degrees C - too late & hot to head up river to find somewhere for the night, so we checked Booking.com and found a Fletcher hotel about 3kms away. We had discovered Fletcher hotels last year, they are a value for money chain that tend to be in the smaller towns.

We locked our bikes up in the bike lock up shed, got changed and had dinner in the hotel which was quite delicious. The hotel itself was in a bit of an industrial area away from the centre of town.