Hanseatic Cities Path

SP11 Deventer to Olst &
SP11 Day Trip F - Olst

SP11 Deventer to Olst, a Winter Wonderland

Due to the announced strikes in regional bus transport, we were not planning to walk the Hanseatic Cities trail this week. However, because of the beautiful weather forecast, we desperately wanted to venture out. This meant, to avoid needing the regional bus, we had to hike two trails: SP11 Deventer to Olst and the Olst round trip.

We got up early and were at Deventer station at half past eight. The sun had just risen, brightly coloring the park in front of the station. We quickly walked to the IJsselkade with a small remnant of the old city wall and left Deventer via the quay to enter the winter wonderland floodplains of the IJssel.

We wandered through stunning estates. We saw Hotel Gaia, also known as the Nieuw Rande estate. This estate was the former residence of the governor-general of the Dutch East Indies. Castle De Haere’ park exhibits a fake ruin and has the largest sundial in Benelux on display. Castle Groot Hoenlo Olst is now an apartment complex and is closed to the public.

SP11 Day Trip F - Olst

Near Olst, we detoured from the main trail to start with Day Trip F. While we approached a bridge, we heard a cyclist whistle. To our surprise, not a dog, but two wild swans listened to the call and flew in to be fed.

In Boskamp, we could not get our cup of coffee since restaurant was closed. Instead, we sat on a bench in front of the church and ate our homemade lunch. Fifteen minutes later, precisely at twelve o’clock, we were on the walking again.

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And we walked along more beautiful houses and farms. The country house Spijkerbosch (1611) and the adjacent park and gardens were renovated by private owners in the sixties. Near Nijendal, we saw an authentic small-scale agricultural and forest area. In the 1980s, the Zoogenbrink farm was restored to its original state. Today, we therefor can witness how the farm farm and area looked like about three hundred years ago!

Around 1300, the Hengforden site was managed by a collective of farmers and used for agriculture and scrub forests. These small alternating agriculture and forests patches are still visible. In this areas, the historical landscape from the Golden Age is also recreated: a Hanzebos with open, swampy areas of meadows, thickets, and pools.

At Landgoed De Haere, we were once again in familiar territory. We walked again along the remnants of the IJssellinie: a defense system implemented after WWII during the Cold War to defend against an attack from Russia. It became obsolete in 1989. I never imagined that almost 35 years later, we need defense systems to protect ourselves again against the same aggressor..

Near the Groot Hoenlo estate, we followed the trail into the estate’s park into the center of Olst. It allowed me to take beautiful pictures of both the estate and the church in Boskamp, the place we had lunch just a few hours earlier.