Experience the best of Enkhuizen

In the seventeenth century Enkhuizen was one of the richest ports of the Dutch Republic, a base for herring fleets and the seat of a chamber of the East India Company. That wealth shows in the gabled merchant houses around the old harbours and in the Drommedaris, a harbour tower of 1540. The streets are quiet today and easy to walk in an hour or two.

The Zuiderzee Museum, on the waterfront, gathers houses, workshops and boats from the villages that once ringed the Zuiderzee. In 1932 the Afsluitdijk closed that sea off from the North Sea and turned it into the freshwater IJsselmeer. A long dyke now runs from Enkhuizen across the lake to Lelystad. Medemblik and Hoorn are short rides away.

Smoked eel from the IJsselmeer and North Sea herring are the local fare, eaten with brown bread, and the harbour cafés spread onto the quay on dry days. In summer the marinas fill with sailing boats and the lake is busy with weekend crews. The town is calmer in the cold months, with grey skies and bright, wide horizons.