Day 3 of Biking:  Destination – Kampen Netherlands.  Today’s Mileage:  36.3 Miles

We told each other that today we’d do the shorter route – 30 miles instead of 36.  After dinner last night, Mike went to the cabin, but I sat down with the guide to go over the briefing for today and somehow I ended up thinking we should do the longer route.  That is because the longer route went through the city of Zwolle, which (according to the guide) had interesting things to see.  That sounded like something we should do.  The reality of it is a different story!

Early this morning, the ship fired up the engines and moved us to a place called Wijhe while we were having breakfast.  The bikes were off the boat by 9:00 AM.  I needed a saddle adjustment, so that took a bit of extra time…but we were on the road by about 9:30.  

We’d barely ridden a mile or so before we had to cross the river on a ferry. 

Many of the people who’d left a bit before we did were waiting when we got there.  As we got on the ferry, we realized that our dinner companions were right behind us.  We were chatting with them when the ferry toll collector walked up.  She spoke English and said (with a smile)… “I need to collect the fee…the more you talk, the bigger the fee…”. We stopped talking!

On the other side, it was every man for himself.  Our fellow passengers all settled into their usual riding speeds and off we all went.  Mike and I were feeling a bit frisky…so hit the pedals to make some time.  I’d told him yesterday that I’d like to get to the end of today with some time to work on this blog and manage my photos!  

The first part of our ride was very rural. 

We passed through this small town called Heerde.  We saw the church down a side road.  The main road was very cute.  It was too early in the morning to stop for any food or drink.

After Heerde, we spent about eight miles riding through either a nature preserve or a national park of sorts – it was all woods and no signs of civilization for a long time.

Of course it was quite beautiful too.  What amazed me is that the bike paths through this area were all paved!  Sometimes there was an unpaved road running next to the path, but other times it was just our bike trail through the woods. 

I thought it was pretty amazing that they’d managed to pave several bike routes through the back of nowhere.  Our route wasn’t the only one crossing that area.  We took a break at one of several bike-crossroads that we saw that day, These bike route signs are a good example of the types of directional signs they put on their bike routes.

At that spot, we were following route 89.  This was an informational sign for #89.

Eventually, we popped back out into “civilization” and arrived at the edge of a very picturesque town called Hattem.  We took a break there.  It was so cute! 

What was interesting, as we took a break on the edge of the town, was just how many more bikes than cars were zipping around.  Some we could tell were people doing some sort of bike tour, but there were obviously many locals going back and forth on their daily business.  

Our route only skirted the edges of this town where we saw this town gate.  It dates back to the 1300’s, but was restored in 1908 -with a bit of artistic license. It might have been nice to see a bit more of Hattem than we did.

Our GPS devices don’t have Europe maps, but they were at least showing us a rudimentary route, which was pretty easy to follow.  It is basically a blank screen with a red line (the route) on it.  We are a slow-moving blue dot on the screen.  The part of the route we’ve put behind us shows blue.  There are simple arrows showing us what direction we’re moving.  When the blue dot lines up with a turn, that’s how we know to turn.  The meltdown the Garmins have if we go “off route” is epic!  We’ve gotten to the point of being very careful not to upset the GPS’s.  When we arrived in Hattem, just before we’d stopped for our break, I’d noticed that our continuing route was more or less straight ahead, passing the windmill, but Mike was convinced it was a “left turn” at the corner just before the windmill.  I’d watched several people turn left…then turn around…so I wasn’t sure he was right.  Sure enough…we turned left…. And OFF ROUTE!!! …so we joined the crowd and turned around and rode past the windmill.  

We crossed over the river.

Mike got out ahead of me while I was taking a picture. We’re riding on a protected dedicated bike path.

Not too many miles beyond our rest stop,  we entered Zwolle.  One of the first things we saw was the city gate. 

I’d been planning on us taking a lunch break there, but for whatever reason we didn’t.  The several things to see that the guide mentioned were not really on the GPS route.  Our problem is that without the GPS, we don’t know the route…and we’ve become hesitant to wander off the route for fear of not being able to pick it up again.  (And there’s the GPS meltdown situation… ha ha).  

So we just kept going.  We passed through a harbor area in Zwolle.

Then we came to a lift bridge that let boats pass through on the canal.  Just as we got there, the lights went off and the bar dropped.

I was intrigued to see that rather than part of the road tilting up, which is normal where we’re from, the entire section of road was raised vertically.

And then – as is our “luck” we were riding through a small neighborhood and came to a spot there there was a lot of construction signs that indicated “closed road ahead” with a worker standing there basically saying “None shall pass!”  (Monty Python & The Holy Grail reference).  There was no helpful detour signage to follow either.

We tried to tell him we had no way of knowing how to bypass this roadblock as we were not from Zwolle or even the country!  He remained unsympathetic, firmly indicating we weren’t his problem…SIGH.  And that’s when our “angel” appeared!  An older woman pulled up on her bike and said – “If you would like to follow me, I will show you the way around this.”  Hallelujah!  She was asking if we were supposed to cross “the bridge”?  We said we had no idea and could only hope that our route could be located after getting around the road closure.  She was going to be our best option for getting through this challenge. She spoke English and chatted with Mike along the way.  Just as we started the approach to the bridge she’d mentioned (and which she needed to cross to get home), the GPS started talking to us again and we were back on track! 

We parted ways with her just after we crossed the bridge with a totally heartfelt THANK YOU!!

After the bridge, it was a winding trip through the outskirts of Zwolle and then beyond.  By then we just wanted to be done for the day! 

For awhile we were back in the countryside, riding along the river on a levee. 

About 2 miles before the end, we both were ready for one last break.  We found a bench and took a break with the view of Kampen, our destination, across the river. 

A couple of miles later, we crossed the bridge to Kampen.

The ship was moored along the river wall only a short distance from the bridge. YAY!  (Totally READY to be done),  

After showers and checking out the afternoon snack that the ship puts out -mainly coffee or tea with either some packaged cookies or a dessert- we took a short walk around the area.   

The ship has a desk where they put the daily route instructions as well as a “highlights” map of the city we’ve stopped at for the night.  Using that, we walked to the nearest city gate.  Kampen has three city gates.  (I confess I have a “thing” for city gates -several of which I saw today!). 

This statue was located next to the city gate.

Then we stepped into the church. 

The church has had an organ as far back as 1400.  Over the years it was rebuilt several times.  The most important re-build was done in 1741-43.  There has been minor updating since then. 

It was being played as we walked in and was quite beautiful.  The church was as big as many we’ve seen in Europe, but wasn’t as ornate as many churches we’ve seen.  There was some construction going on inside, so I was unable to find a good angle for a picture inside..  

After that, we walked down a shopping street -pedestrian only, which is great. 

The guide had shared two of Kampen’s old folklore stories which are still celebrated in the town, so I was determined to see if I could find the locations where these stories happened,

The first one is relating to this tower.

It is called the “New Tower” -having been built in the mid-1600’s after the previous building in that spot burned down.  The story goes that not long after it was built, the town council realized that there was grass growing on a platform near the top of it.  In a time before lawnmowers, it seemed logical to them that they lift a cow up to the platform and let it graze there!  They tied a rope around the cow’s neck and proceeded to try to raise it up to the platform.  I think they didn’t get the cow too far in the air before they realized that the idea wasn’t going to work.  

To this day they commemorate this story by having a cow hanging off of the New Tower.

There is also a cow sculpture in the plaza in front of the tower.

Another famous story happened several hundred years ago.  It happened that the region’s bishop announced a visit to Kampen and the townspeople wanted to give him a feast.  They rushed out and caught a big sturgeon (fish) to present (and hopefully impress) at the bishop’s welcome banquet.  Then the bishop sent word that his visit was delayed by a couple of weeks.  The townspeople realized that the fish wouldn’t last that long and decided to release it back into the river, but with a bell attached.  Th plan was that when the bishop did finally visit, they could listen for the sound of the bell to locate and catch the fish again.  As you would expect…they were unable to find the fish again and ended up serving the bishop boiled eggs!  Sturgeons can get a big as 16 feet long and weigh over 800 pounds.  As a nod to this story, they’ve put a statue of a sturgeon in the river.  It is on the opposite bank, so my picture might be hard to see!

The ship was located in a great spot for walking around Kampen and seeing these sights.  It was a quick walk back to the De Nassau to get ready for dinner.

Today’s route map:

Categories: Part 1: Netherlands Bike & Barge 2025, Part 5: Deventer to Kampen