VOC versus Hanseatic League. Who was the best? You're going to find that out. You drive it through the VOC cities of Amsterdam, Hoorn and Enkhuizen and past the Hanseatic cities of Kampen, Hasselt, Hattem, Elburg and Harderwijk.

Amsterdam, that big city, which is built on stilts. And trade of course. The insignificant village on peat soils grew into a metropolis. Thanks to the trade conducted by the Dutch East India Company (VOC). In the Amsterdam Scheepvaartmuseum you can learn all about the trade of the past. And strolling around on and under the deck of the replica VOC ship Amsterdam is not only fun for children. On the other side of the IJ you enter the Netherlands of the past. Meadows to port, water to starboard. That water is the source of Dutch prosperity. For centuries, the transport of trade goods in, to and from the Netherlands mainly took place by water.
Nice and relaxed you drive on the dike road towards Hoorn. Here and there a bend, an ice cream or a break to enjoy the view. In Hoorn, a number of facades are still standing that were erected there by the VOC. You send your motorcycle to the harbor over Hoornse cobblestones to soak up even more VOC atmosphere there. Clapping ropes in the ship's masts and screeching seagulls complete the VOC picture around the statue of the Scheepsjongens van Bontekoe.
The Zuiderdijk between Hoorn and Enkhuizen is one of the most beautiful motorcycle routes in the Netherlands. But it immediately has to hand in points again, because motorcycles are not allowed on it on some summer weekend days. The alternative via Venhuizen is not bad, but does not match the coastal road itself. Fortunately, in Enkhuizen you can get to the perch at the harbor on your motorbike. The old Visafslag, the Enkhuizer Almanac Museum and the Drommedaristoren are surrounded by drawbridges and monumental facades. This is VOC splendor at its best.

The Markerwaarddijk straight through the IJsselmeer is great! It feels like it was built specifically for motorcycles. Something like the Overseas Highway between Florida and the island of Key-West, but then in our own Low Countries by the sea. Nice touring, hanging in the wind and just opening the throttle to just such a level that the entire engine room in the front does its job pleasantly. Would those helmsmen once enjoyed the cracking of the mast as much as they tightened the sails? Halfway, the island with the Trintelhaven is an obligatory stop. The view over the dike road and the water is phenomenal. How small and insignificant seem the windmills that will soon mow their arms like giants when you drive under them. The refuge is located approximately halfway along the dike between Enkhuizen and Lelystad. Between west and east.
East is east and west is west. And never shall the two meet.' Thus wrote the Briton Rudyard Kilpling. Yes, that of the Jungle Book, it is in his poem 'The Ballad of East and West'. First published in 1889, so also nice and historical. According to Kipling, east and west never meet. Not in the former British Empire anyway. But it is nice in the Netherlands of the nowadays twelve provinces. The east of the Netherlands meets its west in the middle of the dike road between Lelystad and Enkhuizen, between Hanseatic and VOC cities.

The New Land of Lelystad awaits on the other side. Bataviastad, named after the most important VOC trading post in Indonesia, is oddly enough located on the Hanseatic side of Zuiderzee/IJsselmeer. Not on the VOC side of it. 't Bataviakwartier, including the VOC replica ship Amsterdam, fun shopping center, outlet store and catering paradise moored there, is all fake. But it works. The dynamism of the New Land of Lely is a logical continuation of the commercial spirit that swept through our VOC and Hanseatic towns in earlier centuries. The question of VOC or Hanze is just like Ajax or Feyenoord. Apples or pears, tubers or lemons. There must be a difference and there is no arguing about taste. But a question like that kicks up a motorcycle route that skims past interesting bits of history. East and west, both good.
Het Nieuwe Land excels in peace, cleanliness and regularity. The windmills on land and in water are neatly lined up. Their grinding blades occasionally cast shadows on the asphalt that you can't keep up with on your motorcycle. The road along the Ketelmeer is high and nice and wide. Centuries before the VOC, the Hanseatic League brought prosperity to the Netherlands. Beautiful buildings have also been preserved, such as in Kampen, the most important of our Hanseatic cities thanks to its location between the Zuiderzee and the mouth of the IJsel.
The inhabitants of Kampen traded in wood, tar, fish, grain, fur, cloth, beeswax, hard stone, beer, wine and salt. Just like later the VOC, the Hanze also had special ships. Such Kogges can be seen at the Koggewerf on the IJsselhaven. On this beautiful spot are a number of long wooden sheds, in which a rowing boat association, a museum and a tavern are located. This pit stop should also not be missed in this TankTasTocht route.

After another lap of honor over the Kampen boulevard with its beautiful facades and then over the Stadsbrug and thus over the IJssel. Via Genemuiden, the narrow dike road meanders along the Zwarte Water. Every now and then you have to take the roadside for an oncoming vehicle.
Had Hasselt not been a Hanseatic city, you would have passed it unnoticed. An old town hall has been preserved on a square, which now houses the local tourist office. That fits in nicely with the theme of VOC and Hanseatic trade, because tourism is an important commodity in the 21st century. You want to experience the world not only on screens, but also with your own eyes. And preferably on a motorcycle.
Back over the bridge along the Black Water. And then you steer again along the IJssel to Hattem. That picturesque Hanseatic town is bursting with art. The Anton Pieck Museum offers images of VOC and Hanseatic Romance in those old-fashioned cozy Dutch prints and the paintings in the Voerman Museum give a taste of the IJssel landscape. With the images of Pieck and Voerman on the retina, the following kilometers take on a special aura. High cloudy skies, play of sunlight and shadow on the water and land to port and starboard.

No one knows when Harderwijk officially became a member of the Hanseatic League. But that was probably before 1280. Harderwijk then concluded a treaty with the German Hanseatic cities of Hamburg and Rensburg to exchange prisoners and goods. The dolphin city therefore also has a lot to offer in the historical field. Beautiful buildings such as the Vischpoort are visible proof of this. Lely's Nieuwe Land is located on the other side of the water. And behind that again the Holland of the VOC. All land with roads over which a great motorcycle route runs. East and west, all good.
From the twelfth to the sixteenth century, the Hanseatic League was a partnership of trading cities on the North and Baltic Seas. In the Netherlands, cities in the east were members, especially along the IJssel and the former Zuiderzee. Thanks to the Hanseatic League in the late Middle Ages, the economic heart of the Netherlands was located there. At the end of the fifteenth century, the people of Amsterdam broke up the Hanze. The Dutch wanted to take over the Hanseatic monopoly and the Hanseatic League became increasingly weaker, also due to internal strife. Eventually, Amsterdam became the most important port for grain transport from Poland and the Baltic countries. With this 'mother trade' an important part of the wealth was collected that made the VOC flourish.

The first joint-stock company, the first multinational, a state within a state. The Dutch East India Company was founded in 1602 by the Grand Pensionary of Holland, Johan van Oldebarneveldt, and was the largest shipping and trading company in the world until its dissolution in 1795. The VOC had a monopoly on trade with Asia. With spices and products such as silk, tea and porcelain, the Dutch East India Company brought a period of unprecedented economic and cultural prosperity to the Netherlands. That Golden Age and the history of the VOC are now controversial because of slavery and colonialism.
But no matter how you look at it: in former VOC trading cities in North Holland, beautiful buildings still remind us of the period when the Netherlands was a world power. And the roads along the waters where wealth once came to the Netherlands will provide a beautiful motorcycle route in 2023. That is the joint legacy of Hanze and VOC.

During the Hanseatic Year 2023, nine Hanseatic cities in the eastern Netherlands will be dedicated to the centuries-old Hanseatic legacy.