Near the Houtwal looking upstream.   The Houtwal was an old pub on the waterfront, there was also a swimming pool there where I learned to swim. You could sit outside and look out over the river. Or hire a row boat here, like my mother and us children used to do.
Every year on December 5 Sinterklaas would arrive here by boat and all Primary school kids would welcome him with songs, then follow him in procession into the village.
Sadly those wonderful days have gone. The Houtwal is now in private ownership, walls around it, "No Entry" and the pub has gone. This is a typical feature in Gorssel now. With the arrival of many hard nosed retirees from the West of Holland, the good old farmers lifestyle where I grew up in has largely been destroyed.