Our Friesland Province Vacation: Overview

 

We had so much fun doing the Monday-to-Friday mini-vacation to Zeeland Province after my birthday in June, we decided to do it again after Astrid's birthday in August...but this time to a different province:  Friesland.

Left:  See Zeeland way at the bottom-left?  Friesland is at the top-left, way to the north.

There are 12 provinces in the Netherlands, so talk about the opposite ends of the country!

Right:  See the red arrow pointing to Bolsward in Friesland?  That was our home base.

As I said on FB, back in 2013 Astrid and I attended a Christmas concert at the Martinikerk

(1446, center-right) in Bolsward, a block from our hotel (top-left) which used to be an orphanage.

We saw everything again as though for the first time.  Our hotel, with 14 rooms, even had 2 donkeys in

the back yard!  The other building, with the spire (center-left and bottom), is the city hall,

at the opposite end of our street.

[Note the Elfstedentocht sign and bike (bottom-left).  It's longer than this but when there was ice on the canals, the 11-city skating race included Bolsward.  Now it's part of the 11-day bike tour.]

As a btw, every evening we ate what our hotel served: a stone-oven-made pizza we shared and a beer.

They're part of the Elfstedentocht bike tour each year and serve this to the bikers. :)

[Astrid's photo.]

Day 1, Monday, August 30: Lelystad and Lemmer

The province in between where we live (South Holland) and Friesland is Flevoland.

We stopped there in Lelystad to see the Batavia ship from 1628 which has a long and sordid history.

Across the canal we were able to see Antony Gormley's "Exposure" sculpture from afar (top-left),

before driving around to see it up close and personal.  

Astrid had researched it beforehand and knew it'd be a highlight of our trip.  It was!

Once we drove into Friesland, we stopped at Lemmer to eat lunch.

We were last there in February, 2011, while celebrating our first wedding anniversary!

Day 2, Tuesday, August 31:  Makkum, Workum, Hindeloopen, Stavoren

This collage sums up the day of visiting 4 cities along the southwestern Frisian coast.

They all mesh together after a while but are wonderful to see!

I especially liked the colored houses of Stavoren, bottom-left.

[Astrid's collage.]

Day 3, Wednesday, September 1:  Heerenveen and Sneek

Ahead of time, Astrid had scheduled an appointment to sell her dad's solo trumpet

at one of the largest music stores in the Netherlands, not far from Bolsward.

The owner spent quality time looking it over and giving her a deal that was like a windfall!

There's apparently a market for vintage French trumpets like this, also played by Louis Armstrong.

From that happy experience, we drove back, stopping in Sneek for lunch and a walk-about,

remembering it well (from that same anniversary trip in 2011), because of their landmark Waterpoort. 

[Astrid's collage.]

Day 4, Thursday, September 2:  Dokkum and Leeuwarden

Whenever we mentioned that we were going to Friesland, invariably someone would say "Dokkum,"

as in make sure we go there.  So we did.  What a lovely, quaint, Dutch town!

It happens to be the 5th most popular shopping city in Friesland.  HA!

But all we did was walk around and eat lunch on this delightful, docked De Tromp ship.

These are the memories we'd rather make in our traveling Life.

[Astrid's collage.]

Dokkum is best known historically, however, for the martyrdom of missionary St. Boniface in 754,

which is why after lunch we drove to Leeuwarden to visit the St. Boniface Church.

Once in Leeuwarden, the capital of Friesland, we walked to the church on this sidewalk.

Social commentary can be found almost anywhere/everywhere these days!

The St. Boniface Church, from 1882, is Roman Catholic.

The Boniface beer is brewed in Dokkum, so, yes, there's a connection.

Day 5, Friday, September 3:  Urk

As with our Zeeland trip, we wanted to find the perfect city to visit on our way home.

And because we had to drive through Flevoland province again, we both agreed to Urk.

OMG!  It couldn't have been a better place to end our mini-vacation!

It also was the only sunny day we had all week.

[Astrid's collage.]

This second mini-vacation, Monday-to-Friday, was so perfect in every way that we're already talking about what province we want to tackle next.  We're familiar with North and South Holland, in our neck of the woods, so that leaves 8 provinces to go of the 12.  At maybe 2-3 a year, we should check them off fairly quickly...and then work on going back to some for places we missed.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

[Note to self:  August was the first month since January of 2005, when I started this blog, that I posted absolutely nothing, niks, nada, zero, zilch.  I suppose that has more to do with the pandemic than, um, just slowing down??] 

First Wedding Anniversary: Part III

Even by now, before you begin reading Part III of our anniversary weekend over 5 February, you know we had the time of our lives, staying at this windmill B&B in the NE part of The Netherlands.

That's what my post is on at Vision and Verb today: the time of our lives.

In Part I a week ago, I told you about the windmill part of the trip, 125 miles from home. But we went the long way, through 6 of The Netherlands' 12 provinces, to get there. That 'getting there' part is what I end the series with in today's post.

In Part II this past Thursday, I ended the trip with what happened after breakfast that Saturday when we left the windmill for home. Again, we drove the long way home, going north to the coast before driving back south through 3 more provinces. In the end, we drove 390 miles through 9 provinces.

Here's the funny thing: for Astrid, who has lived in this small country (relative to America) all her life, driving through the 9 provinces was almost like my driving through 9 different states in America. The geography, architecture, and language change in much the same way. It's quite astonishing, to be honest. And this is when I realize how compact Europe is compared to my own growing-up experience.

Anyway.

You know how we get started on a trip and almost immediately think about where we're going to stop for koffie met appeltaart!

That would be in Lemmer, just across the border from Flevoland province as we entered Friesland. Talk about another world! But I'll get to that in a minute.


It so happens that Lemmer is a water-sports town of approximately 11K population. In the wintertime, if/when the canal freezes (the one here and right outside our café window!), they have the Pronk Schaatsen festival (literally 'flaunted skating') when the skaters skate as couples and in groups wearing their old-timey costumes, as seen in the following video:


Astrid and I have already committed to keeping tabs on this each winter so that we can go back when the canal freezes. This is so incredibly soulful to me...like sleeping inside a windmill B&B!
If you pay attention, some of the boats in the video are the same as in my images. They're Lemmer boats made there. It's part of their industry, much of which is also about fishing.


As we left Lemmer, there were two things Astrid had Googled to see: the lighthouse (yup, that's what it is, above-left) and the Lemster sea lock with its 2 rounded towers at the entrance to the harbor from the IJsselmeer, dating from 1888 (bottom-right above).

Now. Look at this. It blows me away!

Only 8 miles north from Lemmer, we got out of the car in Woudsend/Wâldsein, a small town of about 1300 citizens on the Slotermeer (lake), still in Frieseland. Very nonchalantly, Astrid started to tell me about when she was 17, at university, and was teaching students how to sail in this very spot. They would dock here to eat lunch before heading out to meet the other boats from the sailing school.

BTW, in the Friesland province they speak a different language that isn't easily understood by the rest of the country. Notice the middle image above that has both the Fries and the Dutch name of the city. It reminds me of countries like Ireland that use both English and Gaelic in their signage.


The reason why Astrid was able to teach sailing was because her dad taught both her and Sander (her two-year-older brother) how to sail when she was 12 (left image above). By age 17 (right image) she was a pro, teaching students at sailing school.
You get a feeling for why this woman to whom I'm married amazes me!

While driving the backroads this entire trip, you can just see my eyes trying to take everything in. The farmhouses, for instance:

This still astounds me.
See how the roof tiles change in color or how there are clear sections to the entire farmstead.
The smaller part is the house where the family lives. The larger part is the barn where the animals live. The farmer only needs to open a door from his house to step inside his barn!
If you think of severe winters, it sure makes sense to me.

The two main cities Astrid wanted me to see before the windmill B&B were Lemmer and Sneek (pronounced 'snake'), 13 miles from each other.

Any city that has a water tower this handsome is a must, as you know by now.

But it is the waterpoort (gate) of Sneek, from 1613, that is its most famous landmark.
So famous, in fact, that an entire line of clothing, Gaastra, uses it as their logo for nautical gear.
See how close the water tower is (bottom-right image above)!


How could you resist such a model from every possible angle!


Inside or out, she's a beauty if there ever was one.
HA! The waterpoort isn't bad either! :)


Can you imagine living in this city of 33K people and seeing this every day. Ho-hum.
See how even Granny Towanda tries to take it all in!

Once we could tear ourselves away from the port, we took a walk around the city center, of course....

...first to the Martinikerk from 1498 with its carillon of 50 bells....
(no entrance possible that day)


...followed by the Stadhuis (city hall) from 1550, going through façade restoration....


...and various other city impressions which we take to heart, as you know.
Every province has it's own flag and this one (top center) belongs to Friesland, the province before you drive furthermost north into Groningen, where we found our B&B...on a very windy day.

Before leaving Sneek, Astrid had one last mission:

A Friesland bakery!
Known for its suikerbrood (a loaf of baked sugar bread with cinnamon added) and dúmkes (taking it's name from the shape of the thumb, a butter cookie with anise flavor and whole almonds), Astrid just had to buy both.
I don't need to tell you they're both long gone.

By this time we were ready and eager to find our windmill B&B 44 miles north of Sneek. We had already had a full day and were ready for some R&R at our B&B, which is Part I of this 3-part series.

In those two days, look at all the weathervanes we saw...


...along with our prerequisite water tower, lighthouse, and gevelstenen!

So when I say we had the time of our lives, how could you possibly not believe me! Remember, I talk more about this at Vision and Verb today.

Thank you for taking the time to see this trip through my eyes. It was totally worth a 'First Wedding Anniversary' celebration. We really did have the time of our lives.