Verhuizen naar de Achterhoek: Lieke’s nieuwe leven

What is “de Achterhoek” in the Netherlands?

The Achterhoek (“back-corner”) is the easternmost stretch of Gelderland, hugging the German border. It speaks a Low Saxon dialect (Achterhoeks), runs to red-brick farms and small market towns like Doetinchem, Winterswijk, and Hummelo, and registers in the Dutch imagination as flat, quiet, and far. For an Amsterdam or Rotterdam kid forced to move there, it’s a kind of internal exile. The region keeps its own anthem, an annual blues festival, and a dense knooppunt cycling network laid over medieval church paths.

In this NPO Zapp vlog, twelve-year-old Lieke documents her forced post-divorce move. She gets lost, meets “een lokale gangster op een cross motor” who knows the way: “Hij weet de weg naar Hummelo.”