Zwolle

Zwolle was a Hanseatic town that grew rich on trade through the IJssel and the Zuiderzee, and its outline is the clearest thing about it: the medieval walls were replaced in the seventeenth century by a bastioned earthwork and moat, and while the ramparts were later landscaped into a park the moat survives complete, so the old town sits inside a continuous star of water that reads perfectly on a map and is walked or paddled all the way round. The Sassenpoort, a fifteenth-century brick gate with four turrets, is the surviving entrance. Thomas a Kempis, who wrote The Imitation of Christ - among the most widely read Christian books ever - lived at the Agnietenberg monastery just outside. Museum de Fundatie in the old palace of justice was given a rooftop extension in 2013, an ellipsoid clad in white tiles, immediately nicknamed the cloud or the egg.

What you actually see

• A complete star moat - the seventeenth-century water circuit around the old town.
• The Sassenpoort - a fifteenth-century brick gate with four turrets.
• A rooftop ellipsoid - the white-tiled 2013 extension on Museum de Fundatie.
• Thomas a Kempis's ground - the monastery just outside where he wrote.

When to go

April to October. Two days.

Honest expectations

Museums close on Mondays. The ramparts are a landscaped park rather than defences. The rooftop extension divides opinion locally. The city is a rail hub and busy on weekdays.

Nearby

Kampen is west; Hattem is south across the IJssel.