The weather prediction was for rain today. It did rain overnight and the skies looked rather threatening this morning, but as we headed towards the river the skies cleared and we were once again baking in the sun!

We decided to cycle on the west side of the river, although we had a couple of opportunities to cross over via ferry , it looked like there was a major highway and train tracks running along the other side. As a result it was a very quiet ride today, well, except for the odd tractor and of course, a few cyclists. We found some pears that had fallen off some huge trees and it seems they are harvesting onions…the scent was filling the air…and we found a lovely red one that must have fallen off the truck.

Most of the time we were riding on top of the dike which runs parallel to the river and a bit inland…which gives one a lovely view of the surrounding countryside. Sometimes the fietspad (Dutch for bicycle path) ran along right beside the river.

The town of Veessen where some of the shops are built right on the dike.

Often we saw a swath of wild flowers which had obviously been planted beside fields, perhaps to attract pollinators.

And what would a blog about cycling through the Netherlands be without a photo of the iconic windmill…

We reached the town of Hattum which is across the river from Zwolle (our destination) and we decide to take the ferry instead of a very busy bridge. We had no idea how busy the ferry would be!

We stumbled across this beautiful park on the way to our B&B (the pink house icon).

That’s it for today. We have booked 2 nights here so tomorrow we can go for a ride without our heavy panniers! Yay!😄