Netherlands Trip - Harderwijk      30th June:

Aquaduct at Harderwijk

    We slipped our mooring lines at 10:30, and by 10:35 we were gilling about in front of the Elburgerbrug. After 5 minutes of waiting, Rex called the bridge operator on VHF, but received no response.
    We gilled and gilled. A barge slowly glided up to the shore near the bridge, fully laden with ballast, the water up to its gunwales and noticeably sagging in the middle, similar to the barge we had seen at Urk the previous day. It nestled up to a wall of piling, and a crane with a grabber immediately began to unload the ballast. The solitary barge man shovelled spillage piled up on his decks.
    We gilled and gilled, more yachts turned up and gilled. Over VHF we could hear other craft trying to raise the bridge operator, but there was a null response. To relieve the boredom, I observed the barge being unloaded by the crane, which appeared to be a fairly quick operation. While we still gilled, the barge was completely emptied of its load of ballast, and now rose 2m higher out of the water, and appeared to sag less. After 70 minutes of gilling the bridge opened.
    By this time, Rex had forgotten all about his back which had been worse today, and was now a muttering wreck with a purple visage. He swore in fluent Dutch. I'd say he was a tad disappointed.

Roundabout for Yachts?

    Passing through the Veluwemeer, we gazed at a huge dredger that was continuously pouring sand into its accompanying barges. Apart from the dredger, there was very little traffic on the water. Two hours into our journey we passed over an aqueduct that lay over a major road between Harderwijk and Flevoland. Then it was a sharp left hand turn to enter the Jachthaven de Knar. We were slightly thrown since our charts indicated a different entrance and marina compared to what we were finding. In fact the old marina had disappeared under a manmade wasteland of sand, and a brand new marina had been constructed in recent times. Despite this, we were soon moored up, though we had to apply some ingenuity with ropes in the box whose length was far shorter than the length of Duonita. Welcome to Harderwijk.
    Harderwijk, like many of the Dutch cities, was founded during medieval times. It received city rights from Count Otto II of Guelders in 1231. A defensive wall surrounding the city was completed by the end of that century. The city became a merchant city, fully involved in European trade as early as the 14th century. Ships from Harderwijk traded wool, skins, herring and wood with Germany, Britain and Flanders.

Molen de Hoop

    The oldest part of the city is near where the streets Hoogstraat and Grote Poortstraat are today. Around 1315 the city was expanded southwards, which included the construction of what is now called the Grote Kerk. A second, northward expansion took place around 1425. Particularly along the west side of town much of the wall still exists, although often not in entirely original form. This also goes for the only remaining city gate, the Vischpoort.
    Between 1648 and 1811 the University of Harderwijk operated in the city. The Swedish botanist, physician and zoologist, Carl Linnaeus graduated at this university. The university, together with the universities of Zutphen and Franeker, was abolished by Napoleon in 1811.
    Harderwijk, like nearby Elburg, was a member of the Hanseatic League. It lies on what used to be the Zuiderzee shore (Southern Sea, now the IJsselmeer) and consequently its economy was strongly based on fishing and seafaring in general. This dramatically changed after 1932, when the Zuiderzee was cut off from the North Sea for safety reasons. Because of this, few fishing boats remain in the harbour these days, which is now mainly home to yachts. An annual event illustrating the former importance of the fishing industry to Harderwijk is Aaltjesdag, which translates to Eel day. Fish can still be bought at stands and restaurants on the boulevard throughout the year except for the winter months. Nowadays, Harderwijk is most known for the Dolfinarium, the largest marine mammal park of the Netherlands. The park has, as the name implies, dolphin shows and many other fish and marine mammals.

Rex About to Enter the Town via the Vischpoort

    The harbour master gave some directions for the hike into Harderwijk - it was a hike too. We passed through what seemed like a desert with sand everywhere. A pile driver was tirelessly driving long concrete piles into the sand to provide the foundations for new houses being built. Further on we came across fully functional opening bridges, with all their red lights working, but completely awash with sand, the waterways yet to be constructed. We learned that the whole area had been a lake, that was recently filled in with sand, and a little "Venice" residential area was in the process of being built in its place.
    After an age we walked by a very large fast-food outlet selling nothing but seafood, and passed a windmill by the Visserhaven before we crossed the Visserhaven via a small bridge. The Molen de Hoop (Hope Mill) is still in use as a grain mill. The current mill dates from 1778, and stood in Weesp, a small town on the Vecht just south of the Ijsselmeer, until 1913. In 1913 the mill was sold and transported to Oldenzaal by train. The mill continued to be wind operated until 1928, after which it became reliant on electric grinding. The Harderwijk Molen Foundation bought the mill in 1993, and the mill was brought from Oldenzaal to Harderwijk. In 1998 this mill was put back into service.

Typical Old Town Street

    Just as in Elburg, we entered the old town of Harderwijk via the ancient Vischpoort gate, and found ourselves in a pretty elongated square of sorts, the Vischmarkt. Further exploration revealed old cobbled streets criss-crossing within the town walls.

Stadhuis in the Markt

    We soon found ourselves in the centre of town in the Markt where the impressive neoclassical Stadhuis stood in charge of the square full of outdoor cafes/bars/restaurants. The regional music school is now located in the Stadhuis.
    A short walk down Kerkstraat brought us to the Kerkplein, dominated by the Grote Kerk. Naturally we paid a visit to the church, only to find it was shut. I noticed a large group of fellows hanging around the corner by a side door to the church. One of the chaps must have spotted our unsuccessful attempt to enter by the front door, and he indicated the side door. I tried the side door; it too was shut. Just at that minute, a lady turned up with a set of keys, and opened the side door. The volume of chattering from the blokes rose by 10 decibels, in tongues which I could not decipher, and they followed the lady through the door. I cheekily followed them in, yanking Rex in behind me.

Grote Kerk

    Once I'd got my foot in the door, I felt emboldened to ask the lady if Rex and I were allowed to look around too. The lady tour guide instantly cottoned on that we were not part of the crowd, and could have legitimately have ejected us out of the door, but she kindly said it would be fine for us to look around so long as we made absolutely no noise. I thanked her profusely, and just hoped Rex did not get one of his back spasms and let out a scream.
    The original church on the site was the Mariakapel (Mary Chapel), built in 1375, and given the status of parish church in 1415 after the previous parish church of Saint Nicolaas burned down. The building was given a new choir with choir passage, a transept and a tower that exceeded the height of the St. Eusebius church in Arnhem, and was therefore the highest of Gelderland. Around 1500, the tower was 70m high, with a ground area of 12x12m. But in 1503 the church was severely hit by the great city fire. The rooftops collapsed, and all stained-glass windows were destroyed. The vault paintings were made in the years 1561-1563, but after the Reformation in 1566 the vaults were painted white.

Interior of the Grote Kerk

Burger Weeshuis (Orphanage)

    A large part of the church was lost when the tower collapsed in 1797, which crushed three traverses of the church. In the pavement outside one can see the positions of the tower, columns and facades with support bearings. The current west-facade with main entrance to the church square was built in 1798 in a Louis XVI style. The last overall restoration took place from 1967-1980, and the renewed celebration square has a carillon with 47 bells. The church holds two church services every Sunday and is popular with performances of vocal choirs, and organ/carillon recitals.

A Section of Old Town Wall

Plane Sculpture

    Despite the sombre exterior appearance, the interior walls and columns were whitewashed giving it a light and airy atmosphere. We craned our necks for quite a while admiring the beautiful frescos on the ceiling. Fine tombstones paved the floor, and even after years of walking in churches on tombstones, I still feel uneasy about the matter, as if I were walking on graves, but of course I'm not. The organ was truly magnificent. Meanwhile the group of men were totally engrossed with what the guide was telling them.
    When we had done, we discovered we were locked in, and we had to wait in silence until the group had had their fill before we all left together.
    Much of the old town centre consisted of shops, cafes and restaurants, so we made our way back up to the Markt square. As we arrived we spotted a wedding party posing on the steps of the Stadhuis for photos. Handfuls of rice were being thrown over the happy couple from the tiered ranks standing behind. Then they all sauntered off along the street behind the happy couple, most of the party seeming to be octogenarians, just like the happy couple. Rex had a tear in his eye; was his back giving him trouble, or was he thinking of Meryl.
    We glanced at the threatening sky, then marched off to find the train station - another 30 minute hike. Tomorrow we intended to travel by train to Utrecht, so getting familiar with the route and train times seemed prudent. On our hike back into the old town we made a detour to take a stroll along the Zeepad next to the Wolderwijd, the expanse of water south of the aqueduct we had sailed over. A sculpture stood in the water shallows near the shore, a tail section of a plane, as if the plane had done a nosedive into the water. Nearby was a plaque relating the background to the stark sculpture, with these words:

Tussen 1941 en 1945 verloren 117 bemanningsleden van geallieerde vliegtuigen hun leven in of bij Harderwijk, veelal in het Ijsselmeer.

Between 1941 and 1945, 117 crew members of allied aircraft lost their lives in or near Harderwijk, mostly in the Ijsselmeer.

    It was too early to eat in town, so we continued our hike back to the boat where we mulled over the idea of cooking on board or eating at the clubhouse at the marina.
    We chose the latter, and researched Utrecht as we sipped a beer. The food was adequate and cheap, nothing to write home about. As side orders to our chicken sate we ordered two items we had never tried before: Bitterballen and Krokets. Externally, the Bitterballen resembled small Scotch eggs. They are a Dutch meat-based snack, typically containing a mixture of beef or veal, beef broth, butter, flour for thickening, parsley, salt and pepper, resulting in a thick roux. The Krokets were the same, just sausage shaped.
    We ambled back to Duonita just before the heavens opened and a howling gale blew up.