Don’t be afraid if you feel something gently brush the soles of your feet if you go swimming in the IJsselmeer in Hindeloopen! It’s probably just an ancient branch of a tree from a forest that was flooded several centuries ago, the remains of which are still rooted in the lakebed today. This ancient forest covered a large part of what is now the IJsselmeer and was once the favourite hunting ground of local princes and earls who’d stalk the deer that lived there in large herds. There were so many deer, in fact, that they are said to have given Hindeloopen its name: hinde means deer in Dutch, and loopen means to walk, run or jump. The forest was apparently the perfect spot for deer to mate. Another legend behind the village’s name is that it comes from a German word for the chicory−Hindlauf−that grew in the marshy ground between the trees before the forest was flooded.