Bucketlist NL: Zutphen & Bronkhorst

The day started grey and a bit rainy. It was just one of these days where you know that this weather would not change. But we were a bit restless after spending days indoors due to the holidays. We wanted to get out into the fresh air but also get a few things for our upcoming trip. We had a couple of gift certificates that were burning in our wallet.

But where to go? A quick look on Google Maps brought us to a town called Zutphen and later that day also to Bronkhorst. So off we went. We first quickly bought the things we wanted and we then did a city walk through Zutphen. Zutphen is a Hansa town which means it was a former mercantile town in medieval time. The city center is beautiful with nice canals around its city walls like the Berkel gate and the Drogenaps tower. There are many authentic small streets which sometimes end up in beautiful squares surrounded by old prestigious houses. The city center is not big and it will take you a couple of hours to see.

After this nice walk we saw we had a couple of hours of light left and we realized we had never visited Bronkhorst. This is the smallest city of the Netherlands and lay on the way home. As we drove through the floodplains of the IJssel river we saw the nice town appear over the dyke. Left and right of us we saw many geese grazing in the grass. There are only 44 houses in Bronkhorst and they have told us that there used to be city walls and canals as well but they disappeared over time together with a small castle. This was destroyed by fire and never rebuild. Only a small hill remains.

Bronkhorst is a picturesque little town and an open air museum. There are many beautiful old houses and farms of which many are national monuments. In the middle of town you will find a little church, a Dickens museum and an Inn which is also a hotel. We enjoyed a hot cocoa here and a really nice Bronkhorster Bock Ale. Many of the houses have artist studio’s where you can see and buy beautiful pieces of art.