Veluwe

The Veluwe lies in the province of Gelderland, to the south of the Veluwemeer, a narrow arm of the IJsselmeer which separates Flevoland from the mainland. It is bounded on the east by the river IJssel and on the south by the Rhine; to the west it merges into the Gelderse Vallei (Gelderland plain) and the Utrechtse Heuvelrug, the Utrecht Hills. In recent years almost all the old Veluwe villages have developed into holiday resorts, for the tourist trade is an important source of income for the local people, supplementing the meagre revenue from agriculture (undemanding arable crops, production of butter and eggs). In the central Veluwe, a thinly populated tract of sandy soil, there are no towns: these all lie on the outer fringes of this inhospitable area. The principal towns are the IJsselmeer ports of Harderwijk and Elburg, together with Arnhem and Apeldoorn and Ede.