Weerwater

Almere (Dutch pronunciation: [ɑlˈmeːrə] (listen)) is a planned city and municipality in the province of Flevoland, Netherlands, bordering Lelystad and Zeewolde. The municipality of Almere comprises six official areas that are the districts of Almere Stad (which is further split up into Almere Stad Oost, Almere Stad West and Almere Centrum), Almere Buiten and Almere Pampus (which is currently being designed), and the boroughs of Almere Haven, Almere Hout and Almere Poort. Four of them feature official district or borough offices. Furthermore, it also comprises the unofficial historic district and neighborhood Oostvaardersdiep, which has an active semi-self-governing community, and the planned district of Almere Oosterwold. Almere is part of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (MRA). Almere is the newest city in the Netherlands: the land on which the city sits, the Southern Flevoland polder, was reclaimed from the IJsselmeer from 1959 to 1968. The first house was finished in 1976, and Almere became a municipality in 1984. It has the largest population of the municipalities in Flevoland with 207,904 citizens in 2019 and the 7th largest in the Netherlands. In October 2007, the city council of Almere made agreements with the government to expand the city to 350,000 inhabitants by 2030.

Almere Centrum is a railway station in Almere, Netherlands. It is located approximately 22 kilometres east of Amsterdam. The station lies on the Weesp–Lelystad railway. Almere Centrum is located in central Almere: a new town established in 1976 on land reclaimed from the sea (cf. Flevoland). Almere Centrum has two platforms and four tracks, and was opened in 1987 following the completion of the Flevolijn between Weesp railway station and Lelystad Centrum. The station's original name was Almere Central Station (CS), but it was renamed in 1999 to Almere Centrum. The station building has a glass roof, and the tracks and platforms are elevated above street level. Almere Centrum bus station is located beneath the railway station.

Almere Stad is a district of the city Almere in the Dutch province Flevoland. The first houses in Almere Stad were finished in 1980. Nowadays there are several residential areas, offices, industrial areas, parks, and a lake. The city hall as well as a regional hospital are located in Almere Stad. In March 2006, the first shops in the new city centre were opened. This new city centre has been designed by Rem Koolhaas [1] and hosts an attractive waterfront, a state of the art cinema, a theatre, several retail outlets, restaurants and apartments.

Almere Parkwijk is a railway station which lies in Almere, in the Netherlands. It is located approximately 24 km east of Amsterdam. It is on the Weesp–Lelystad railway. The station is on the newest polder in the Netherlands, the Flevopolder which is in the Flevoland province. The station was opened on 1 February 1996. Although the station was built 9 years after the other Almere stations it is styled in the same way as Almere Muziekwijk and Almere Buiten. Almere has become a commuter city for Amsterdam. The first house was built in 1976 and on 7 July 2008, it was recorded that there were 184 405 citizens living in Almere. The station lies in the centre of the 'Parkwijk' the Park Estate and the 'Verzetswijk'.

Almere Haven is the oldest borough of Almere (although the first houses of Almere were built in the neighborhood now known as Oostvaardersdiep in Almere Buiten). Although Almere Haven does not have its own railway station, it is well-connected to Amsterdam and the rest of Almere by a good bus rapid transit system.Almere Haven has a small harbour, as well as a marina and is surrounded by large forests of poplars containing buzzards, foxes, small deer, and owls. The closest forests are Beginbos and Waterlandsebos. Almere Haven features a mall that, for the most part, closely resembles the downtown area of a small town. Along the moat called Kerkgracht (inside the mall), it also features canal houses, which resemble old canal houses found in Downtown Amsterdam. This was done to make the first citizens (in 1975) feel at home, as they were people who had previously lived in Amsterdam. The first permanent building inside the mall was the multifunctional building De Roef, which closed down a long time ago. The building is still actively used; currently it is home to a Vögele Mode store.The first permanent school of Almere (Haven) was built in 1978 in the neighborhood De Werven. Its name was De Bijenkorf. As more schools were built in Almere and younger people and families settled in other parts of the city, De Bijenkorf became less important and eventually ended up with just a handful of teachers. Therefore, it was up for closure. However, instead of closing, the building burned down in December 1993 because people threw firecrackers through the mailbox. The police found out who those people were, but they never prosecuted them. The building was never restored. No trace of the building remains today because in the early 2000s, houses were built on top of the former school site. The first neighborhood of Almere Haven is De Werven. Among other houses and other things, it features a lot of greenery, a big park called Stadswerfpark, a sports center with an external playground (Playground Stadswerfpark) specifically for sports (like a soccer field and basketball court) and a public pool building. It also features a big supervised playground called De Speelhaven.Almere Haven features the most idealistic architecture in Almere, when the goal was to build a model city on the newly reclaimed land of Flevoland. The city was planned before increasing population pressure in Almere and rising property prices caused compromises on the original vision. Almost all housing developments are built to provide views of greenery and open spaces, and each group of houses is clustered around a little park (although this concept has changed in newer areas), usually with easy access to the surrounding forests, so most residents of Almere Haven do not have the sense of living in a crowded urban area. The urban area of Almere Haven does not have the inconveniences of busy traffic, car pollution, and road noise because all roads are cul-de-sacs connecting to a well-hidden ring road that provides the only car access in and out of Almere Haven, although there are sometimes traffic jams in rush hours on said ring roads (especially on the ring road Noorderdreef). The bus rapid transit system contains a large loop throughout the borough with a bus stop in almost every neighborhood.

Almere Castle is a half-finished castle in the Dutch town of Almere in the province of Flevoland, Netherlands. Construction started in 2000 but was halted in 2002, after which the building has turned into a contemporary ruin. It is located on the Oude Waterlandseweg in Almere Haven and is visible from the A6 motorway.

Almere Muziekwijk is a railway station in Almere, The Netherlands. It is located approximately 20 km east of Amsterdam. It is on the Weesp–Lelystad railway. The station was opened in 1987 when the line Weesp - Lelystad Centrum was built. In 1987 Almere Centrum and Almere Buiten stations opened before the Almere Buiten - Lelystad section was completed in 1988. Almere has become a commuter city for Amsterdam. On 7 July 2008, there were 184,405 people living in Almere.

Yanmar Stadion (formerly Mitsubishi Forkliftstadion and Almere City Stadion) is a multi-purpose stadium in Almere, Netherlands. The stadium primarily hosts association football matches and is the home ground of Almere City FC. The stadium was built in 2005 with a capacity of 3,000 spectators. In January 2020, the club completed a new grandstand, increasing the capacity to 4,501. The grandstand affords covered passages to the main club building, as well as to the new club offices which were completed in spring of 2020.Once the stadium was used for American football.

Almere City Football Club is a Dutch professional football club based in Almere, Flevoland. Founded in 2001, they play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football. They host their home matches at the Yanmar Stadion. The club builds on former clubs from Amsterdam and is a result of ambitions of the Almere city council to play an active role in top sports. To that end, the sports club Omniworld was formed, which consists of a volleyball branch, a basketball branch and a football branch. Prior to the 2010–11 season, the club was renamed to Almere City FC.

The Gooimeer (Gooi Lake) is a bordering lake in the Netherlands between the southeastern part of North Holland (the Gooi) and Flevoland. There is a railroad bridge over the narrow west side, between Weesp and Almere Muziekwijk, with a parallel highway bridge, the Hollandse Brug. The narrow eastern border of the lake is crossed by two parallel highway bridges. On the south bank of Gooimeer, which used to be the IJsselmeer, before the creation of the new polder Flevoland, the old cities of Naarden and Huizen can be found. The Naarderwoonbos, part of the Naarderbos, was built in the eighties. It is situated directly adjacent to the southern shore of the Gooimeer. The Gooimeer is related to the crash of El Al Flight 1862 in 1992, as the two right-hand side jet engines separated from the plane and fell into the lake, witnessed by a fishing off-duty police officer. The plane suffered serious damage to its right wing after losing the engines, and continued on for eight minutes until it crashed into the Bijlmermeer apartment complex, killing all of the occupants of the aircraft as well as several residents of the apartment complex. See also the maps at Zuiderzee Works and bordering lakes.

Oostvaarders College, also referred to as OVC, is a school located in Almere Buiten, Netherlands. In the beginning the Oostvaarders College started as a small school, but became one of the largest middle/high schools in Almere with more than 1,500 students. Oostvaarders College is part of the Foundation ABVO Flevoland. This is a foundation for general secondary education especially in Flevoland. The school is an official UNESCO school.