Starting down the IJssel

The first few hours today we were still going up the Neder Rijn. We passed the third weir and lock, at Driel and them came to Arnhem, passing under the bridge where the Battle of Arnhem, part of operation Market Garden, was fought in September 1944:





At this stage, we were doing about 6 knots. A few miles later, we reached IJsselkop, where the river IJssel splits off from the Rhine. We made the sharp turn to port to go downstream the IJssel and now we were suddenly doing over 9 knots, thanks to a 3 knot current downriver. This of course was good for us, but it is not so nice when one goes upstream! Therefore, the big commercial boats want to stick to the inside bends of this meandering river, where the current is less than on the outside. That means that every now and then, they need to navigate on the 'wrong' (= port) side of the river. They indicate this by showing a blue 'board', with a white flashing light on it. Like this, a rather rare (on this river) commercial passenger boat:





When you come across one of these, you need to quickly cross the river and pass 'starboard to starboard'). So you need to keep your wits about you, and look carefully at each oncoming barge to see whether or not he shows the blue board.

With this great speed, we soon reached our destination for today, the medieval town of Zutphen. This is a really nice and well kept historical place, one of the cities of the old Hanseatic league. These are part of the old fortifications:





As you can see, the weather is reasonable, we get a rain shower every now and then, but so far most of the rain has fallen at night :-)

Tomorrow, we plan to continue the trip down the IJssel.

Location:Zutphen