Tiel, Geldermalsen, Buren

Tiel may have joined the Hanseatic League in 1402, but its joy was short-lived. Tiel was too small a town to really count. After some thirty years, they were not allowed to participate in the Hanseatic Days, because they were counted as a suburb of Nijmegen. Yet Tiel has a glorious past as a trading town: in the 10th and 11th centuries, the city was of international significance. It traded with the mighty Cologne and with England. This important position can still be seen in the many monumental buildings in the city. The Ambtmanshuis (the civil servant's house) and the Gothic house are also reminders of those times, as is the border post at the Havendijk between the Tielerwaard and the Neder-Betuwe. Geldermalsen already had a castle, Ravesteyn, in the 11th century. In the 19th century, resident Edmond Willem van Dam van Isselt, later Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament, had the castle drastically rebuilt, but in 1916, the castle was sold and soon after demolished. Buren is well worth a visit with over 150 municipal and national monuments.