September 2025 – Part 2 (16th to 30th)
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Despite a windy and rainy evening, we all managed a good night’s sleep, and woke refreshed and ready to celebrate Jane and Bob’s 53rd wedding anniversary on 16th September with a meal out later in the day.
Unfortunately in the morning Jane had an awkward fall in the ensuite, and ended up with painful cracked/broken/bruised ribs so for her, getting about became uncomfortable to say the least. Despite that, she/we were still prepared to head out for a celebratory meal, having already found and booked a table at a little Spanish restaurant in town for an early afternoon meal.
Our first hiccup was getting into town – no buses and no taxis/Ubers were available to us, so we decided to walk the mile distance. All good, until the intermittent rain set in, such that on arriving in the town it proved too wet to hang around for our 2pm booking, and we headed straight to the restaurant a half hour ahead of time …. on entering, we could see the place was empty – open but empty of other diners – and when checking-in they had no reservation for us (even though we could show them the confirmation email we had been sent). As it turned out we were the only customers, so I suppose the reservation was an irrelevance, and they easily fitted us in. The meals were all very, very nice, as were the desserts and coffee, but eventually we had to leave the cosy interior and head out into the rain to pick up a taxi back. But yet again we were thwarted, no transport was available and we had to walk back to the marina. Ah well, it all made the outing a little more memorable for us all, especially for Jane who, with her poor things, was beginning to flag by the time we reached the boat.
That evening we all zonked out with 2001, a Space Odyssey, interesting even if some of us didn’t fully understand it all, and then the day was over.
Moving on the following day (17th), we continued along the Ijssel river to Deventer, making good time and arriving just shy of two hours later at a mooring on the opposite side of the river to the town, with a regular ferry crossing almost next door to us.
After a little break we took the ferry across the river to visit the centre. The ferry was highly decorated with a flower display at the stern, which made a pretty little backdrop on the <5 minutes journey.
Despite the poor weather, the town centre was impressive with it’s centuries old buildings, the sections of the defensive wall, not to mention the impressive church.
We quickly decided that a coffee break was in order, and made a bee-line to one of our favourite ‘chains’, Brownies & Downies, in the Grote Markt. We do like the whole ethos of Brownies & Downies, and it didn’t disappoint this time. The staff are always friendly and helpful, and on this occasion they all seemed to fall in love with Casper and Pip, so they’ve gone even higher in Nicki’s estimation.
Leaving the cafe we made a short detour to see a little more of the area, but Jane suddenly fell ill and we made as quick a return as possible so that she could rest a while. However, despite taking it easy she did not improve and the pain became more intense, so the following morning Bob and I arranged a taxi to take her to A&E to get checked over. Happily there were no broken bones, but Jane had managed to badly bruise round her ribcage and needed super strong pain relief plus antibiotics, and plenty of rest. With no sinister implications, we arranged to stayed one more night in Deventer and took off for Hattem in the morning.
On our way to Hattem along the Ijssel river, we cruised for around two and a half hours and picked up a berth at the Ijsseldelta Marina, a nice (but expensive) night’s stop surrounded by green spaces and close to the town.
I took a late evening walk into the town to find a well preserved cityscape with a medieval street plan, high walls, and a town moat, all of which reflect its fortified past.
As one of around 200 Hanseatic cities spread throughout Europe, Hattem flourished in the Middle Ages, and this can still be seen from the impressive merchant’s homes in the old town centre. (In those days, it was important to protect oneself and one’s wares properly, so the high walls, town moat and guarded gateways provided extra security.). Parts of the original town wall have survived, as has the fourteenth century Dijkpoort.
Moving on again in the morning, we cruised through gorgeous scenery of the Overijsselsche river Vecht into Dalfsen, a lovely little town with an attractive water front which now allows overnight mooring (on our previous visit mooring was only during the day on this stretch).
We spent a couple of nights in Dalfsen, enjoying a few walks into town, and Bob and I even managed a cycle ride to the nearby castle, Kasteel Rechteren, which is the only remaining medieval castle in Overijssel, located on an island in an old arm of the Vecht River. The castle itself is now privately owned so it was not possible to see inside, but the the surrounding estate was accessible for hikers and cyclists.
(Interestingly, in and around the area of Dalfsen there is a local variation of the Dutch language, known as Sallands, which is still spoken by a small number of the population. Sallands contains 172 sayings, 1063 words, and 8 comments … “everything has an end, but a sausage has two” which apparently means “everything is one, but one is divided into two”; “old meat” means “a very old person”; “he took the bottle inside” means “a fast drinker”; “he had a slap from a mule” means “someone who is crazy”; and “she’s back to her birthweight birthweight” means “someone who has been dead a long time”, are just a few strange examples.)
After three nights spent in Dalfsen we continued along the river to Ommen, finding ourselves in another charming town with narrow streets and alleyways, showcasing a National Tin Figure Museum which boasts a collection of 30 mm high figurines numbering in excess of 120,000, and all very similar to the real world.
At this point however we needed to begin our return to Zwolle in readiness for Bob and Jane’s return to the UK, so we only managed one night in Ommen before making the five hour plus cruise into Zwolle, happily once more finding plenty of mooring space available in the municipal harbour.
This gave us a full day to spend wandering around Zwolle, including the highlight of a visit to the Grote Kerk in the centre of the town – an over 600 years old national monument housing a stunningly crafted Schnitger organ, built in 1721. It is the largest baroque instrument in the Netherlands and is considered one of the best baroque organs in the world! Incredibly the organ contains over 4,000 pipes and has 64 speaking voices.
The imposing pulpit is another beautiful, ornately decorated piece …
At the rear of the church was an exhibition called “Gesina & Being Seen,” which focused on the 17th-century artist Gesina ter Borch, and is part of a large broader “Ter Borch at Home in Zwolle” exhibition series.
Having spent some time inside the church, we made our way over to the Van Der Velde In De Broeren, a 15th century church converted into a 21st century bookstore (with cafe, of course) in 2013. The interior was so worth the visit with its beautiful ceiling paintings, curved arches, stained glass windows and functioning pipe organ all remaining untouched in the repurposing of the buildiing.
Returning to Shensi, Bob and Jane began packing up and preparing for their departure in the morning, and we all relaxed over a final meal and a drink together. (Although there was some anxiety over a missing boarding pass.)
I had agreed to travel with them up to the airport on the Saturday, and the three of us set off in the morning for a slow walk to the train station, easily caught a train through to Schipol, and once there and set up with a wheelchair to assist them through the airport, I left them to manage the last leg of their journey, and caught the train back to Zwolle.
Nicki and the dogs met me at the station so that we could walk into the town where the large Saturday market was in action, completely transforming the centre. As we walked along we noticed many sections of the remnants of the original city wall, taking a few pics as we walked through to the bustling Saturday market.
Unfortunately the afternoon was somewhat marred by a phone call from the Cumbrian coastguard service advising that Alec’s emergency beacon has gone off and they would be sending out a rescue team to find him! After a particularly stressful few hours we eventually heard from Alec, when he let us know that he was ok but he and his fellow climbers had rendered assistance to some other climbers en route, and he had needed to summon the rescue services for them. The relief for us was immense, and we were then able to get on with our day in a much happier frame of mind.
From this point on, we were aiming to make our way very slowly to Groningen and headed off the next day back to Hasselt for the night. The journey wasn’t too long, and arriving on the quayside we moored up once again outside of the ice-cream ‘tower’, taking advantage of the free water fill and a power top-up. Nicki took the dogs off for a long walk in the nearby fields, and then we set to with boat tidying and generally clearing up. We did consider staying a few nights in Hasselt, but decided instead to press on in the morning once we had made a quick food shop.
As it was, the morning began very foggy, so delaying the cruise with the shop proved to be a good idea, as happily the fog had cleared by the time we got back. As the morning passed, the sun came out and we had a lovely cruise to Paradijsluis, where we took advantage of a nice bankside mooring outside of the lock.
We had thought we would stop here on our journey, but as we tied up, along came the lock-keeper to inform us that that was as far as we could go … until next May! Bridge works further along the waterway meant that the canal would be restricted to vessels with a maximum length of 12m, and despite ‘shrinking’ at times to keep mooring costs down, on this occasion it wouldn’t work.
One thing this lifestyle has as taught us is the value of flexibility and a ‘c’est la vie’ attitude, so we sat down and studied our options until we came up with an alternative route – we had plenty of time in hand, so although it was an ‘oh, no’ moment, it wasn’t a disaster by any means. Almost a repeat of the previous year when we had also encountered a bridge problem on our way back to Groningen.
With a new plan in mind, we settled in for a two night stay, which then became a three nighter, and began some of the many pre-winterisation jobs that needed to be carried out. The grassy bank was bordered by a decent cycle path, but generally it was very quiet, and only a few meters away was a pleasant little lakeside walk, altogether a great environment for Pip and Casper to enjoy.
Fun fact – the nearby lake had been established among buildings in an industrial area, and in early 2022 along one side the local authorities opened the “Oeverzwaluwwand” (Swallow Wall), an artificial concrete breeding wall with nest holes for over two hundred pairs to build their nests. Ths wall serves as a safe nesting place for swallows in the Drentsche Hoofdvaart canal, and, despite in the past being plagued by badgers digging out the nests, has become a successful project for the survival of the birds.
