Onward and downward

Zutphen to Hattem

We set off in better weather to explore the town, one of the Hanseatic League of self-governing cities, along with Deventer (passing through later), Zwolle and others. They formed a kind of primitive EU, with trade protection and reasonable cooperation, until superseded, I suppose, by the nation states, particularly Sweden, Denmark, etc. An important feature of Zutphen is the remnants of its protective walls:

It is reckoned to have one of the best preserved mediaeval centres of town in the Netherlands, and was certainly most attractive.

We came across a church, now deconsecrated and turned into a library, with a pleasant flower garden containing this reminder of events not so very long ago:

The town hall is imposing and has a very attractive chime of bells every quarter – not too loud but very tuneful:

Our main target was the Church of St. Walpurga, which didn't open till 10.30. It started off as a Romanesque church in the 11th century, but was much changed over the centuries, including the addition of a unique public library in the 16th century. We admired this spectacular 17th/18th century organ, which was being played as we visited:

Then we were able to get a personal guided tour of the "new" library, opened in 1564 and preserved as it was ever since. Zutphen was not a university town, so this is no Bodleian, but the burghers were well educated, and tended to donate their book collections to the library, where named individuals, about 55, were given keys to unlock the chained books and could come and browse. Initially the idea was to provide an information centre to counter the "evil" propaganda of the Reformation, but soon other influences crept in, and Luther, Erasmus and others appeared. After the Spanish were chased out in 1591, the Dutch Reformed Church took over, and has remained ever since. It was exciting to see original Gutenburg books, and just as much, school books with the original students' notes.

After that we hurried back to the boat to meet the noon deadline for departure. We headed back down the Ijssel, still running pretty fast so that we were covering the ground at 12 kph or more. (The GPS is back in action after some communication with the helpdesk. It seems that upgrading to Windows 10 had blocked it. Thanks Bill!) We paused for lunch at Deventer, where Diana embarked on an urgent translation that kept her busy all afternoon, and finally pulled into the port of Hattem for the night, where we are on a quayside largely populated by tugboats:

Tomorrow we turn off the river, passing Zwolle and Zwartluis en route to Meppel.