Flow the Collection · 11 June 2026
There is a word that holds the Achterhoek together: naoberschap. It means something like good neighbourliness, the unspoken agreement that you are there for your neighbours, whether for a chore, a harvest or a loss. It sounds old-fashioned, yet you still notice it in the way people here greet you and take their time.
A landscape of stage wings
The Achterhoek is a layered landscape: hedgerows, copses and farmhouses stand one behind the other like stage wings, so your gaze can always reach a layer deeper. Nothing here lies in straight lines or large flat planes. It is a landscape that reveals itself slowly, meadow after meadow, bend after bend.
The rhythm of the countryside
Here things move at the pace of the seasons. Spring arrives with cow parsley and young calves, summer with tall grass and thunderclouds building over the fields. In autumn the beeches on the estates turn orange, and in winter a quiet settles over the land. Come here and you naturally learn to look more slowly.
Water as a thread
The Berkel meanders right through it all, unhurried, in lazy bends through the meadows. The calm flow of the river suits the region: nothing here moves faster than it needs to. Along the banks and the hedgerows you feel how the landscape and the pace of the people have grown attuned to each other.
A quiet stay in Lochem
To really feel this slow rhythm, it helps to stay somewhere and have nothing to do. Hotel Hof van Gelre in Lochem sits in the middle of this green, calm country. From here you let the days run slower of their own accord: a morning walk, an afternoon on the terrace, and the evening settling over the layered landscape.
