The Hansard

Zwolle - trip 3, week 1

Craig made his way to Zwolle for his next stop, a medieval town and historical member of the Hanseatic League. It turns out that 2024 is the 500th anniversary of the last real attempt to force the city defenses through a siege. The last remaining intact part of those defences is the Sassenpoort  - the custom house - one of the three historical entry ports into the city. There are other parts of the walls and towers (one tower is now a B&B!), which Craig checked out in his circumnavigation of the old city (easy to follow around as - like Groningen - there is still a canal/moat around the entire medieval centre.

At the centre of town is the Academiehuis Grote Kerk, a former church mostly converted to community space (although there is a small ecumenical congregation that worships in the former sanctuary). The highlight would be the enormous pipe organ, but it is in the process of being restored.

I didn't know anyone in town, so I made a new friend

Interesting tidbit from Wikipedia: the town was liberated "single-handedly" from the Nazis by Canadian Sgt. Léo Major of the Régiment de la Chaudière. He was sent into town to reconnoitre enemy positions and make contact with the Dutch Resistance. Depending on the version of the story, he either saw the backs of the last few enemy soldiers bugging out, or caused them to do so by setting off grenades and Sten gun fire to trick them into thinking a larger Allied force had arrived. Either way, he reported back to his HQ in the morning that the town was free of the enemy, thus preventing it from being damaged by a planned artillery barrage.

P.S. the Catholic semifinal was Spain 2 France 1