Watersport and Hanseatic cities - In the Ijseel area which has 75 picturesque villages and the largest natural reserve, art and recreation go hand in hand.
As soon as you leave town, the area is more rural. Apart from urban settlements like Nijmegen, Arnhem or Enschede, the eastern part of the Netherlands is characterized by farm houses, fields and forests. The majority of tourists come to this area to relax in Mother Nature, for example in the largest natural reserve of the country, De Hoge Veluwe. Once, the province of Overijssel stretched from the German boarder to the Ijssel Sea. The drain of the southern lake, which started in 1942, created a new area of 48,000 hectare in 1975 – the province of Flevoland. The two former islands Urk and Schokland are a part of this newly created region. Overijssel and Flevoland are real water sport paradises. Most of the rivers and lakes are ideal to sail, row or kayak. The province is named after the river Ijssel and there are many former Hanseatic cities like Zutphen, Deventer, Zwolle and Kampen with mainly intact centers.
