Explore Deventer by foot – 3 Ideas for walking in Deventer – Hanseatic City in The Netherlands

Safe and Healthy Travel | 06/10/2024 | Europe, Hiking, The Netherlands | 2 Comments

Walking to explore the beautiful hanseatic city of Deventer? It is the best way if you ask me. So I went for 3 walks in Deventer to get to know the different aspects of this unique Hanseatic city. I walked through the beautiful city centre, took in some of the city and saw the IJssel with its beautiful vistas.

Where is the city Deventer in The Netherlands?

Walking along the IJssel – Deventer

Climbing the Lebuinus Church

Hanseatic City Walk – Explore Deventer

Hotels in Deventer

Explore Deventer by foot – The Netherlands

I often drive past it, over the A1 motorway, and see the IJssel meandering past the city of Deventer. I find it a great sight every time. Sometimes wide, with high water, and sometimes it meanders a bit more because the water is low and you have new islands. I would like to stop in the middle of the bridge and take a photo….but we won’t, will we?

Where is the city Deventer in The Netherlands?

Just to show you where Deventer is on the map of The Netherlands. The first arrow shows you where Amsterdam is, you all know that right? The next arrow shows Deventer. So more to the right and still in the province of Overijssel. Same province I live in!

Explore Deventer by Foot – Hanseatic City in The Netherlands

Walking along the IJssel – Deventer

So my first visit this year to Deventer was a hike of around 10 K near Deventer, The Netherlands.

Walking along that great river IJssel. I parked my car at the Sandton IJsselhotel. It is free and really close to the citycentre. From that point you can take a ferry to the other side and you’ll walk into the citycentre immediatly. So….that means that from this point you’ve got that great view over the city and its Lebuinus Church. And the beautiful houses along the IJssel.

I love that view!

I started walking in Deventer to the village of Terwolde and after 4 K I turned and walked back. The picture below, with the sun setting, is from that first side.

This was a great sky, it started to rain not long after this picture. I do not really like the rain but you have to admit…Those skies are great! Perfect weather for the best pictures!

After I went walking onto the other side, in the direction of that highway. I passed this great mill and saw that it is open for visiting. You can go in the mill and get some explanation about the heritage and working of the mill. I went on walking and got in that area I always saw from the highway. I really must admit that it looked better from a higher point of view but walking here gave me a totall different feeling. There were multiple paths that lead me through the grass and waterside. You can ofcourse walk the paved way but you can also walk in the grass and close to the water of the river IJssel. So I started walking back to Deventer along the IJssel.

Would you like to do some more hiking near & through Deventer? Check these stages of the Hanzestedenpad. (A path that walks along several Hanseatic cities)

Climbing the Lebuinus Church

To get that great view on Deventer and the river IJssel there is no other option then to climb the Lebuinus Church. Earlier this year I climbed the Hallgrimskirkja and I loved the view over a city and the roofs of its houses.

This time I visited Deventer with a couple of bloggers, also travelbloggers. It is a great city with lots of history and we wanted to show that to the rest of the world! So Emiel of Act of Traveling decided to invite us to his city. The city of Deventer thought that was a great idea and gave us their support! We ofcourse went and had a great day. For me the oppurtunity to go and see that view from up the Lebuinus Church so with Judith and Emiel we went up those 220 old stairs!

The gate keeper was a great guy! He encouraged us ofcourse to go up. He told us that he managed to walk the stairs all the way up for multiple times a day and he didn’t thought it was that hard. The man was already 70 years old so it wouldn’t be hard at all for us!! He also talked about his time as a sailor. He didn’t slept that much and had lots of time to work. Then he proudly let us know that he only needed some 3 hours sleep a day… WHAT?? Yes, he had some short naps…but that was enough for him!

Halfway up there was a path to another staircase and we had already this great view over the nave of the church. We enjoyed that for a while and meanwhile we recovered our breath. Going on to the top we went into that narrow spiral staircase again. The ray of light is always great through those small spy-holes and finally getting up… We were treated with that beautiful landscape view over the city and the IJssel. I really must admit that it was even more beautiful then I expected!

This is a must do if you go walking in Deventer, walk up also!

We had great weather! The view on the IJssel was magnificent, those houses, the square and those roofs.. actually everything we saw was great! Everywhere I saw small details like a doll or statue on a roof, tiles in different colours or the old typical Dutch facades of the houses!

Explore Deventer, The Netherlands

What about that great watertower in the distance? Had you noticed that?

Hanseatic City Walk – Explore Deventer

Looking over a city, seeing those great small streets you just got to take a city walk!

And the city of Deventer is really great for that! It has a historical rich citycentre and it is good for walking. Emiel gave us a tour along the best sights in town and there were parts I hadn’t seen yet because I always was one to come for shopping and not for sightseeing. If you look at the city from the tourists point of view you see such different parts of the town and can take such beautiful pictures!

The ‘Borstelwinkel’

Walking in Deventer brought us along the many small streets of Deventer and we stumbled upon the Borstelwinkel. A shop, like the were in the old days, with items they used in the those days. All kinds of brushes and brooms, great!! You can see more about the shop on their website.

I love to see those old fashioned shops, like they were many, many years ago. As if time stood still for a while. The owner told about her shop, she was very passionate about it. She made sure that every couple of months the window display was changed and another design and theme is put in to it. We went inside totake a look, what a lovely lady and a great shop she had!

The Beguinage (Begijnhof)

Emiel told about the beguinage in the middle of the centre of Deventer. many residents didn’t even know about this place. If you just shop and don’t look into sidealleys I can imagine that you didn’t see it. And if you do see the gateway you might not enter it because it belongs to someone’s house. I really enjoyed that view, I can imagine myself sitting in front of my door with a cup of coffee in the morning 🙂

Walking the alleys of Deventer

We just walked into that beguinage from out of the busy shopping streets.

On every corner I was surprised by the beauty of Deventer. The streets, the houses and shops are so beautiful decorated and kept in the best shape! The colours and flowers everywhere makes this city amazing to walk in. All the old buildings are kept in the best shape you can imagine and so the city is eyecandy!

I just kept shooting pictures and walked with that smile on my face!

How beautiful is this street to wander around?

You can see a lot in 1 day but if you really want to explore Deventer you will need more time. Are you going to Deventer for a weekend?

Explore Deventer by Foot and do stay around for the atmosphere at night too!

Hotels in Deventer

Want to stay in Hanseatic city style? Then I can recommend Huis Vermeer. What a beautiful hotel with a super location in the middle of the old, historic centre of Deventer. The river IJssel is around the corner from this hotel.

Or do you go for the Fletcher hotel which is also in a beautiful old building (a former presbytery) in the city centre? The stairs and corridors in this hotel also really take you back to an old time.

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