Tour de Pays-Bas Day 10: Harderwijk to Amersfoort
We wake up early in Harderwijk and enjoy a quiet and tourist-free stroll through the town. There are more charming cobblestone streets to explore and beautiful old brick buildings to admire. It’s a beautiful town and we hope to visit again. But we decide to clear out at checkout time and make our way to Amersfoort.
Harderwijk - Amersfoort: 39.5 km
Google Maps time: 2 hours, 2 minutes Our time: 3 hrs 30 min (includes stop for lunch!)
Heading southwest out of Harderwijk, we ride on a dedicated bike lane along the Wolderwijk lake. There’s a lovely walking path for residents with plenty of small beaches along the way. Wish we had time to go for a swim! (Justin actually did attempt a dip in the Wolderwijk the previous day and it was freezing and kinda seaweedy and gross – he’s such a diva!) We’re a little disappointed when we part from the water and rejoin shared traffic roads but we push on with promises of more water-adjacent bike lanes promised on our Google Maps route. And we’re not disappointed!
About 15 km into our ride we link up with the Zuiderzee Route, which has us biking on an elevated dyke with beautiful wetlands to our left and the Nuldernauw lake and Flevoland to our right. (A quick word about Flevoland, which is a small province composed of reclaimed land dating back to the 1950s. Justin has always been fascinated by it. Possibly because it was “new” when he spent a year living in the Netherlands in 1987-88, one year after Flevoland was officially declared the 12th province of the Netherlands. We had contemplated charting a route that would take us through Flevoland today to satisfy Justin’s longtime urge to visit, but it would have added too much time to our trip. So instead we admire Flevoland’s modern wind farms from across the water and look forward to visiting another day.)
This has to be one of the most stunning bike routes we take on this trip. Indeed, the Veluwe region is well-known for its beautiful trails. (The Zuiderzee Route we’ve linked to is a shorter 53 km distance than the LF Zuiderzee Route, a 440 km bike route that takes you all the way around the Ijsselmeer. … And goes through Flevoland! We’ll have to try it someday!) But this shortened version also seems popular as there are lots of tour groups on e-bikes all basking in the delight of this magical bike trail. We try to savour the experience ourselves by taking our time and soaking everything in. Sometimes you just don’t want to stop and take a photo and just experience life as it comes. … Of course, we kind of regret it now as the few photos we do take and the video below hardly do it justice.
We enjoy about 10 km of this majestic ride until we break from the Zuiderzee Route to make a scheduled stop in Spakenburg. To be honest, we can’t remember what we had read about Spakenburg that made us mark it as a stopover on our way to Amersfoort. But as soon as we cycle into this historic harbour town we are grateful to our past selves for the tip.
The village of Spakenburg is a throwback to older times. Filled with beautiful wooden ships (called botters) in narrow canals, museums and shops selling the village’s unique traditional clothing, which are still worn by its residents on occasion. Unfortunately we miss “Spakenburg Days” (which are celebrated every Wednesday this year between July 23 and Aug. 13, where there is a market and live music and the community comes together dressed in traditional attire to dance and celebrate) by one day! Nuts! Maybe we should’ve researched this visit to Spakenberg a little better! No matter, with lively café terraces serving up lunch and drinks on this busy and festive Thursday afternoon, there’s still plenty for us to see and do.
The highlight has to be the broodjes we get from a small fish stand for lunch – gerookte paling for Alison and maatjesharing for Justin. Spakenburg is known for its seafood, and this broodje haring has to be one of the best we’ve ever had, with two perfectly salted buttery herring filets topped with a pile of freshly chopped onions on a soft white bun. The paling (smoked eel) is also absolutely delicious.
Another broodje we would’ve liked to try is the Bali Burger from the local Indonesian toko (the Indonesian word for “shop,” which the Dutch widely use to designate any Indonesian restaurant or takeout place) Podomoro. With a blend of Indonesian spices, the burger won gold for the Horecava NK Lekkerste Burger in 2023. And while Podomoro offers more traditional Indonesian fare, it seems their fusion burgers are all the rage with the lamb burger “LamsBurgerGini” winning again this year. … We made a Bali Burger at Borrel back in the day! And a lamb burger just before we left. Maybe we need to do some work on those! Sadly, Podomoro is closed for the day. We’ll have to go back to try it!
After a refreshing bitter lemon drink (Alison’s new favourite. Also, the Netherlands has way better tonic water than North America), we get back on our bikes for a short 45-minute ride to Amersfoort. Biking into this medieval fortress town (it’s right there in the name!) offers a very impressive sight: as we ride up from an underpass, the city’s outer fortress rises up in view. Justin attempted a video of the ride in:
Despite having spent the past few days in medieval walled Dutch cities, they never get old (well, they’re already old – but you know what we mean!). We’re very taken by the aesthetics of Amersfoort: all the old stones, narrow canals and bridges, and of course the gezellig pleins (town squares). Turns out our hotel is located right by one of the liveliest pleins in the city, Lieve Vrouwekerkhof, which faces Amersfoort’s famous tower Onze Lieve Vrouwtoren. Visitors can climb the 346 steps of this 98.33 metre tall tower for amazing views of the city. Unfortunately, after cycling hundreds of kilometres over the past week and a half, our legs aren’t up for that! Instead, we enjoy a few post-biking beverages and a very delicious slice of apple cake in the plein and just enjoy the view of the tower itself.
To be honest, despite the invigorating bike ride and all the beautiful things we’ve seen today, we’re starting to feel all those days of biking and really need to take it easy. We’ve been to Amersfoort before so we don’t feel too guilty about not exploring too much. We just wander around through the picturesque streets along canals and are led back to a very cozy cafe called Marktzicht (see below). It’s a little too cozy as it’s getting late again and most restaurants are closing up their kitchens. Thankfully, an old staple family-run Italian restaurant Pizzeria Pompei is willing to stay open a bit later and we carb up on absolutely delicious pasta dishes: tortellini al pesto and a sensational lasagna bolognese. This place is truly old-school and highly recommended. Considering it’s known for its pizzas, if they’re anything like the pasta we have to come back! Thanks again to Pizzeria Pompei for accommodating us so late!
We hit up Markzicht for a digestif and then head back to the hotel for a good night’s rest. Hard to believe tomorrow our bike trip will be coming to an end.
CAFE OF THE DAY: Marktzicht
Marktzicht is not your typical bruin cafe. … Actually, it might not be bruin at all. While they have some traditional Dutch beers on tap, there are seven rotating taps and more than 80 specialty beers available in bottles. Our server is knowledgeable and helps Justin narrow down his search for a Dutch session IPA and Alison enjoys an organic wine, which they also specialize in. So while it’s a bit on the fancier side, it’s also super cozy and charming with wood floors and a beautiful bar. Of course, most people were enjoying their drinks outside on their busy terrace on the Lieve Vrouwekerkhof plein. Inside or outside, it’s a guaranteed good time!
LEARN FROM THE AMATEURS: As we mentioned on this day and on others, while much of our trip has been spent riding on the luxury of separated bike lanes, there are occasions – especially in smaller towns – where you share roads with cars (and sometimes tractors in farming communities). Bicycles are a recognized and respected mode of transport in the Netherlands and, while we never felt unsafe, it was sometimes a little scary to have cars tearing past you well above the speed limit on otherwise quiet roads. Would it kill them to slow down just a touch when passing? We don’t want to start a commotion with this but it was a little disappointing to notice that in most casees, the quieter the roads with no chance of traffic congestion, the more aggressive and needlessly dangerous the car driving seemed to be. It was a bummer. But it was manageable riding. Just a heads up that if you want separated bike lanes for the entirety of your travels as we had hoped to have, you’ll have to do your research and carefully plot out your route.