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??] 

The Bolsward Christmas Concert with Martin Mans

'Tis the season!  And we're in it full blast (except, alas, without snow...yet).

Two weekends ago we drove south (A) to the Christmas market in the limestone caves of Valkenburg (an upcoming post), but this past Saturday we drove northeast (B) into Friesland, to our Christmas concert of this season in Bolsward.

  As Astrid says, we drove the entire length of the Netherlands in two weekends, 328 km (204 miles).

But I want to start with the Christmas concert first while it's still fresh in my mind.  We won 2 tickets for the price of one on the Dutch VakantieVeilingen auction site for the Christmas concert with Martin Mans in Bolsward.  You might remember that we did this last year for the Christmas concert in Amersfoort with Pieter Jan Leusink.  We've decided we'll do this every year, as long as we can get tickets for half price!

Since we chose a 3 p.m. afternoon concert, we decided to leave early enough for a small photo hunt ahead of time...first to Workum, 12 km from Bolsward.  After all the wind and rain a couple days before, we wanted to be near the coast to check it out.

 But first things first, you know!

A potty break and a koffie break...or in this case, a hot-chocolate break with gevulde speculaas!

 It's a pie-shaped tart/spiced cookie filled with almond paste, a Christmas specialty.

O.M.G.

And look at the quaint Pottebakkerhûs where we were served.
Sometimes you just have to be there...like seeing the little mouse tile near the floor in the bathroom!

Directly outside our café window, across the street, is the St. Gertrude Church of 1480,

with its free-standing tower.  This for a town of 4,000 inhabitants!

 The old weigh house and town hall are in the market square next to the church.
Everything is right at your fingertips, I always say.

And with a weathervane and a good gable stone, what more could you ask for!
It doesn't take much to make us happy.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

But it was Bolsward we wanted to see before the concert.  So back into the car to drive those 12 km...

It's a city with a population of c. 10,000.  How charming.

The stand-out tower of the city center is its city hall from 1614.
The dark image is from after the concert around 5p.m.

 City halls in Europe really do take the cake...apart from the grand cathedrals.

Speaking of grand cathedrals, just a block away from city hall we found this shell.
What in the world!

This is the Broerenkerk (Brother Church) built in the 13th c. as a monastery for the Friars.
It burned out in 1980 and has since been made into a national monument.

It's hard to describe what it felt like to be inside there...
but I couldn't help but think of how you can't put new wine into old wineskins!

 On that note, we found a place to eat lunch.
Did I ever mention that we always share half-n-half of what we get when we eat out?
In this case it was a farmer's omelet and a tuna salad.

By this point we had seen plenty of gevelstenen = gable stones...

 ...and all those things I love to "collect" wherever we go.

Impressions.  Imnpressions.  Impressions.

Even the oliebollen vendor was out selling his Christmas goodies.

 While walking to our concert, we passed the St. Francis Church from 1932 (bottom left)...

...and then saw the Martinikerk nearby, the protestant Great Church from the 15th century.
This was the day's destination.

It was almost packed by the time we arrived at 2:30p, half an hour early.
This was when I'd have to trust the 1200mm range of my new camera, I told myself.
I'm not used to sitting in the back of a church, but sometimes it does have its advantage.

 And I had plenty of time to look around...

 ...especially at the organ, just behind us, built by Albertus Anthoni Hinsz in 1781.

 I even captured some of the Urker men in back before they filed down the aisle to sing.
Now look at the concert program below...

 How cool is that, using the provincial costume of the Urker men for its program!

Urk is a municipality and town in Flevoland, south of Friesland, whose economy is based on fishing.
Martin Mans is the director of these fishermen singers...

...as well as the larger group of VOICE singers in black.
That's Martin Mans himself (bottom left), a man of many talents, including organ playing.

It was an incredible concert with acoustics to die for.
After the second piece of the program, God and God Alone, I was in heaven.
Tears in my eyes.  A song in my heart.  Joy in being alive.

And I knew we'll do this every year, somewhere, as long as we are able!