East of Amsterdam

Kevin had the day off as it was the Victoria Day holiday in Canada. The weather was fantastic so we hopped on the omafiets again today but this time headed in the opposite direction. Our ride was shorter at only 58K, but we saw just as many new and interesting sights as yesterday.

Our first stop was about 15K southeast of Amsterdam in Muiden, which is a little town at the mouth of the River Vecht. A branch of the Rhine that originates in Germany, it flows through Utrecht in the Netherlands and then empties into the IJ Lake, formerly the Zuiderzee. We ate lunch beside the locks, where we watched as boats were lowered about a foot before the bridge turned sideways to allow passage up the river.

Muidenslot, a castle with an interesting history, sits at the mouth of the river only 600 metres from the locks. The first castle was built by Count Floris V in 1280 when he was granted rights to the area and imposed tolls upon vessels taking goods to Utrecht, an important trading centre in medieval times. However, after the Count met an early demise as retribution for raping a nobleman’s wife, the Archbishop of Utrecht conquered the castle in 1296 and razed it to the ground by 1300. The current castle was built in 1370-1386 on the same spot using the same plan by Albert I, who was the Duke of Bavaria, as well as Count of Holland and Zeeland. Today’s photo was taken between the locks and the castle.

Next, we followed the Vecht to the pretty town of Weesp. We stopped for a while while I took pictures and Kevin looked longingly at pleasure boats cruising by that were sharing the wide and expansive river with barges moving their wares between Amsterdam and Utrecht.

We continued to cycle in the countryside and stopped for ice cream in the Town of Abcoude, in the Province of Utrecht. Although we intended to head back to Amsterdam at the point, we took a wrong turn to the south and found ourselves in Baambrugge. Fortunately, we got turned around before too long and made our way home through Ouderkerk ann de Amstel and Amstelveen.

We had a wonderful day exploring. Cycling is definitely the best way to travel!