Deventer is one of the oldest towns in the Netherlands, a Hanseatic city on the IJssel river that grew rich on trade in the Middle Ages and has kept its look. The river runs broad and slow beside the old harbour, with brick warehouses, churches and the long quay lined with cafes, and the centre is full of narrow lanes, towers and crooked gables. A town of nearly a hundred thousand people, it is large enough to have everything a rider needs, with fuel stations on the main roads and a good choice of places to eat in the old town.
The best-known local food is Deventer koek, a spiced gingerbread cake whose recipe goes back centuries, and which you can buy in bakeries and the old shops by the Brink, the main square. The square is also home to the Waag, the weigh house, a handsome medieval building with a tall tower, and the Bergkerk and Lebuinus church keep watch over the roofs. In the late Middle Ages, the town was a centre of learning and a home to the Modern Devotion movement, started by Geert Grote, whose ideas of simple, personal religion influenced writers like Thomas à Kempis. The town's old library, the Athenaeum, is among the oldest in the country.
On a motorbike, the town is better as a place to stop than to ride through. The centre has cobbles and one-way streets, and tram-like crowds of cyclists, so go slowly, and park on the edge or by the river. Out on the IJssel, the roads along the embankments are the thing, flat and quiet, with water and willows on one side and farmland on the other. The surface is mostly smooth asphalt, with sudden bends where the road follows the river.
The IJssel rises when meltwater and rain push the Rhine up, and the quay walls show it, with old flood marks and steps that lead straight into the water. Walking along them on a summer evening, you see why people love the place.
Come in late spring or early autumn for the best light, and a stop at one of the riverside terraces is a good way to end the day. Food ranges from pancakes to modern kitchens, and the gingerbread makes a fine souvenir.