Harderwijk

Harderwijk had a university from 1648 to 1811, small and not distinguished, which acquired a reputation for granting degrees quickly to foreign students - Carl Linnaeus arrived in 1735, submitted a thesis he had written beforehand, was examined and graduated as a doctor of medicine within about a week, then went on to Leiden and to the work that reorganised biological classification. Herman Boerhaave also took a degree here. The town was a Hanseatic port on the Zuiderzee, and when the sea was closed in 1932 and the Flevoland polders were pumped out in the 1950s and 1960s Harderwijk stopped being a coastal town at all - the water in front is now the Veluwemeer, a narrow lake, with reclaimed land beyond it. The old centre keeps its walls, the Vischpoort and gabled houses. The Dolfinarium is here.

What you actually see

• Linnaeus's degree town - graduated in about a week at the small local university.
• A Hanseatic port without a sea - cut off when the Zuiderzee closed and Flevoland was pumped.
• Walls and the Vischpoort - the surviving fortification and gate on the old waterfront.
• The Veluwemeer - a narrow lake where the open sea used to be.

When to go

April to October. A day.

Honest expectations

The Dolfinarium keeps cetaceans in captivity, which is contested and worth knowing before buying a ticket. The old centre is small. Summer weekends are busy with lake traffic.

Nearby

Elburg is north-east; the Veluwe forests are south.