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.

A day in the De Hoge Veluwe

June 13 - Day 8

36.83 km                                                                               

Total distance on the trip 433.44

2:16:40 hrs  moving time

188m  elevation                                                                      

Total elevation 913

Weather low of 13, high of 18. Wind 27km/h Southerly (but we did not need this today as we were spending the day in the park - or so we thought)

We woke to a cool and sunny morning, ate our breakfast and headed to de Hoge Veluwe which is a huge (55 km²⁾ national park in the centre of the Netherlands.  It had once been a private park and residence for relaxation and hunting by the owners  Anton Kröller and his wife Helene Kröller-Müller, but like so many other rich dutch, the owners handed over the park, gallery and mansion to the Dutch government when they suffered financial hardship in the 1930's and could not afford the upkeep.

Near the entrance to the park this recumbent was parked, it looked like it was built for speed.

The plan was to visit the hunting lodge, visit the museum, then go for a long ride around the park as it did not close until 10pm. Plenty of time and light to enjoy the day.

Once we had entered the park we found the infamous "white bikes" these are available for free to use in the park. There hundreds of them, children and adult sizes. Every adult bike had a child seat on the back, so families would not miss out on a bike if they had small children. We started to explore, we did have an appointment to tour the mansion at midday, so we could not head too far away. 

We rode through a forest with really tall pine trees, then all of a sudden, the trees ended and the landscape became one of sand and sand dunes. It was quite incredible how sudden the change was, and how barren and massive the dune section was. This barren area is termed a terminal moraine and was formed in the ice age and indicates the edge of where a glacier once was.  

As we rode through the park, there were statues and beautiful flowers everywhere.

The time was right for us to head to the Jachthuis Sint Hubertus (St. Hubertus Hunting Lodge) which was the country residence of the couple. It was designed by the Dutch architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage. We spent a bit of time walking around the house and looking at the details.

You can only enter the building with a guided tour, and the tour was in Dutch, however, I was able to secure an audio guide which helped with descriptions of the house.  It was beautiful, and we only got to see the downstairs area.

Everything had been so thought out and planned in its design. The architect was also responsible for the interior decoration. It really was something. 

The stained glass windows above the entrance were gorgeous, and rivalled any church windows. The attention to detail throughout the house was astounding. The very large dining room, the carpet was made to fit into the floor - the tiles fit around the carpet so it is not above the tiles. 

These rooms were on either end of the house - the red ceiling room (the lady's sitting room)  was to reflect the sunset light into the house, the green (the library and smoking room, or man's den) the morning light.

Visiting with Mr Jaques (Oswald Wenckebach) at the entrance to the Kröller-Müller Museum and art Gallery. I am so glad we decided to dedicate a whole day to the park, the house and the museum. There is so much to see here. 

Some of the sculptures that were on display indoors - it was exciting to see the works of artists I had learned about at school ...Rodin (bottom left), Umberto Boccioni, the bronze in the centre, Horse and Rider (Marino Marini), and Alberto Giacometti, whom we had learned about in Switzerland in 2017.

There are over 20,000 pieces in the museum, some were familiar, some were new. The museum has set up an online catalogue of 4500 pieces so far. 

Even the coffee shop added to wealth of art in the place. Appropriately packaged chocolate to go with the hot chocolate.

After we had exhausted ourselves inside, we ventured out to explore the sculpture garden, which is HUGE! We saw about 20% of what is there. 

After exhausting ourselves in the sculpture garden, we left and decided to go ride our bikes around the park. For once we did not check the weather forecast which had become so important to our day.

Our plan was to set out, heading south to do a circumference of the park in a leisurely manner.

The landscape changed so vastly and so quickly the further we went. Wayne had a bit of a mechanical on the way. 

Then as we were as far away from any shelter we could see the rain heading right toward us.  We donned our rain jackets, turned around and sprinted back toward shelter, but we were not fast enough. The rain absolutely soaked us. We passed so many people who had gone out on a ride and were also caught unprepared.  By the time we got back to the museum, we were soaked to the skin and freezing as the temperature had dropped to about 13 degrees, then add in the windchill from our riding.

We got to Otterlo, the nearest town and the rain stopped, the sun came out. We were absolutely soaked. We stopped at the supermarket to buy some newspaper so we could dry our shoes out and headed back to where we were staying. 

The evening stayed pretty cool, and the glamping tent's heater was not functional, so we piled on all our dry layers, ordered takeaway ate dinner, and only warmed up when we went to bed.

Otherwise it was a fantastic day.