The Hanze Discoverer : EASY BIKE & BARGE Hanseatic Rhine, IJssel & IJsselmeer

Arrival at Amsterdam

On our first day, you are welcome to board at around 1.30 pm. Today there is no sailing and no biking yet! You can drop off luggage after 9.15 am and explore the city centre that is pretty close to the docking in the Oosterdok.

In the afternoon we will have a welcome meeting and a guided walk through Amsterdam.

Amsterdam to Wijk bij Duurstede

During breakfast, we will start sailing on the Amsterdam Rijn Channel and follow that for a few hours. We start cycling from there and see if we arrange for a pick-up or if you cycle to Wijk Bij Duurstede.

Wijk Bij Duurstede is an old waterway crosspoint with a castle ruin and a walled inner historic city. And a windmill, YES!

Wageningen to Arnhem

Today is a special day, for we will cycle through the largest National Park of the Netherlands: de Hoge Veluwe. In this park we will pay a visit to the Museum, which holds the largest collection of Van Gogh Paintings outside of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

A private collection, now belongs to a foundation. After this great break, we will down to the Rhine Valley where the IRIS is docked. Next to the John Frost bridge, known from the Allied Operation Market Garden in 1944.

Arnhem - Deventer

After a nice sail on the Rhine, we enter the IJssel, a side arm of the Rhine, ending in the former Zuiderzee, now the IJsselmeer (IJssel Lake).

Doesburg is the first of many lovely towns along the IJssel where we will start cycling. We will have a break in Zutphen and continue to Deventer, with its narrow streets that put us right back in past times. What a great city. Enjoy a drink at the town square. The ship is docked on walking distance!

Deventer Kampen

Our route takes along beautiful countryside, dikes and meadows, and the meandering IJssel river. Our destination is Kampen, once the biggest and most important town of the Dutch Hanze Cities, and still a regional center. We are now close to the place where the IJssel flows into the IJsselmeer.

Kampen - Hoorn

Today we will sail a while before the captain drops you off to go cycling, along the dike that connects the cities of Lelystad and Enkhuizen. A lot of nature development is happening here, and we will see the masts of the ships docked in Enkhuizen from far ahead. In Enkhuizen, we would like to visit the Zuiderzeemuseum, a partly open-air tribute to the seafaring history of the old inner sea ( called the Southern Sea), now turned into a lake, called the IJsselmeer.

After this visit, we continue cycling to Hoorn, another beautiful town with its glory days in the 18 hundreds. Loads of amazingly well-kept monumental buildings make it easy to imagine the past.

Hoorn - Volendam - Amsterdam

One last morning sail brings us to the world-famous town of Volendam. This former fishermen’s village is still unique. A Volendammer (as we call the inhabitants) will live his life here, marry a local girl and visit his parents and grandparents every Sunday. Volendam is a tourist hot spot, so we will have a stroll through it, but start cycling in a bit to be back in the countryside again!

You will be amazed at how close we are to Amsterdam already! The countryside is still lovely and quiet, and we will follow the canal to enter the city.

We will ride into Amsterdam on cycle paths, and use the ferry to return to the harbour, where the IRIS will await you.

Amsterdam

Time to say goodbye! Last breakfast at 8.00, leaving at 9.00 at the latest.