A century ago, the place where your boat moors didn't exist: it was the bottom of the sea. Lelystad, capital of the province of Flevoland, sits on a polder reclaimed from the former Zuiderzee in the 20th century, several metres below sea level. The town bears the name of Cornelis Lely, the engineer who designed this titanic project of dikes and pumps. Boats dock at Bataviahaven, a modern harbour designed to receive river cruise boats and tall ships, a stone's throw from the main attractions. Depending on the season, visiting traditional sailing ships and nautical festivals liven up the docks. The port call is enjoyed on foot, between historic ships, submerged memories and vast new spaces.

A 17th-Century Giant Brought Back to Life

You can't miss its three masts on arrival. The Batavia is a faithful replica of a Dutch East India Company ship launched in 1628 and lost on its maiden voyage off Australia. Between 1985 and 1995, carpenters and volunteers rebuilt it right here, using period techniques: solid oak, gilded carvings, kilometres of rigging. You climb aboard, lean over the cannons and go down into the lower deck where more than 300 people were crammed. Guides frankly recount the shipwreck and bloody mutiny that made the original ship part of the dark legend of the Dutch navy.

Batavialand and the Wrecks of the Zuiderzee

The neighbouring museum, Batavialand, completes the visit. There you learn an astonishing fact: while draining the polders, the Dutch found hundreds of shipwrecks lying in the fields, where the inland sea once stretched. Maps, recovered objects and models tell both the story of seafaring of old and the making of Flevoland, a territory drawn with a ruler. The adjoining shipyard, still active, lets you watch craftspeople working wood and hemp.

Shopping at Batavia Stad

Just behind the quays, Batavia Stad Fashion Outlet lines up more than a hundred brand-name shops in the setting of a small fortified town. The place is not historic, but it's handy: between visits, you'll find cafés, restaurants and good deals, five minutes' walk from the gangway. Cycle paths also run along the dike, for those who prefer to feel the wind off the Markermeer.

The Oostvaardersplassen, Invented Nature

A typically Dutch paradox: one of Europe's most studied nature reserves occupies a corner of polder that had been left undeveloped. The Oostvaardersplassen, a vast area of marshes and meadows on the edge of town, is home to herons, geese, harriers and large herds of Konik horses and deer. A visitor centre and observation trails let you approach its edge; guided excursions tour it by coach or by bike. A hit documentary, De Nieuwe Wildernis, made its free-roaming herds known far beyond the Netherlands.

A Program for Everyone

Aviation enthusiasts indeed have one more option: the Aviodrome, near the local airfield, displays about a hundred aircraft, from the pioneers' Fokker to a Boeing 747 you can explore from the hold to the cockpit.

As you cast off, you look differently at the perfectly straight line of the dike on the horizon. This flat country inherited nothing: it built itself, metre by metre, pump by pump. Lelystad leaves the rare feeling of having walked on an idea turned into solid ground, and makes you want to follow this long conversation between people and water elsewhere in the Netherlands.