More Monarchy.

Sunday 29th September 2024. Confucius Day.

Deventer to Amersfoort – 62km.

I was already in bed at 9pm last night when my room mates turned up. One from Holland and one from Belgium. They both spoke great English and we discussed all sorts of stuff from drugs, money laundering, religion and wars! I persuaded them that the world’s problems were all caused, not by politics or religion but by ‘people’. I think I am completely right. If only we could get rid of ‘people’ we wouldn’t have any problems! Don’t quote me on that!

This morning I was last out of the room by 8.30am. That’s a lie in for me. The forecast for today was good….I only had 60km to cycle and I wanted to make the most of it.

My route took me through Twello, a nice little place with a great name which sounds like a shade of Yellow. Then through Apeldoorn.

It does have a rather wonderful Palace on its doorstep though.

It was an interesting and well presented Palace with a lovely garden….and what a great day to see it. Mary was the British King James II’s sister but he was Catholic much to the dislike of Parliament. So, the ‘Glorious Revolution’ was schemed, whereby the Protestant William and Mary would be surreptitiously invited to invade England. It was a risky business but it paid off. With relatively little opposition William of Orange invaded, he won the British Crown and James went into exile. By doing so the dominant religion in Britain continued to be Anglican Protestantism and has been ever since.

For the Rinteln (and Kendal) readers, there is a column dedicated to the Glorious Revolution in Kendal on the site of Kendal’s original castle. Not many people know of the columns existence or that there was an original castle!

I learned so much about the House of Orange and the history of Holland. The current King is Willem-Alexander. Of course it is a constitutional monarchy similar to the British version but it still attracts a great deal of support and admiration.

I was back on my bike to ride to Amersfoort. I went straight to the small hotel where I was staying to freshen up and then into town around 4pm.

The city was buzzing on a late Sunday afternoon. The shops and bars were open and it was really vibrant as well as feeling very Dutch.

It had a bit of everything, old walls, gates, church towers, canals and old buildings. I must admit to going shopping….the weather forecast for two days isn’t great….so I plan to stay in Utrecht for two nights and in order to deal with the rain I bought an umbrella! That’s a first for me.

I ate fish and chips in a bar whilst watching Man Utd v Spurs. It was 0-2 when I left. The guys behind the bar were great. The Dutch are soo good at speaking English.