Welcome to Friesland, Netherlands..

Friesland is a province in the north of the Netherlands. It actually was a part of the ancient and larger region of Frisia which included the coastal region along the south-eastern corner of the North Sea. Frisia is the traditional homeland of the Frisians, Germanic people who speak Frisian, a language group closely related to the English language. It extends from the north-western Netherlands across north-western Germany to the border of Denmark.

Friesland is mainly an agricultural province so it’s full of lovely windmills, green farmland, cattle, horses and simply people.

Windmills, they are all over the place. This one is in Dokkum.

The usual thought when thinking of the Netherlands is Amsterdam, coffee shops, bicycles, the Red light district and the never-ending parties like there is no tomorrow. True, the people are open-minded and there is a lot of religious freedom and tolerance. So when I visited Amsterdam for the first time everything I heard about it was true. It depends what you want to be there and how you want to spend your time. But there is more to it. The cities have gorgeous looks, the winding canals are stunning, and the buildings beautiful, the nature is great and it makes you want to walk around for the rest of your life. Especially here, in the land of these warm, lovely and creative people.

Cities have mostly canals like this called grachts. They are here for transportation, for draining, for water-winning and as sewers, all at the same time.

Center of Dokkum.

Dokkum again.

And again.

Grachts, boats and a beautiful visitor in Groningen, an university city in the  north.

The beautiful city of Groningen.

Literally everybody rides bikes and they leave them literally everywhere.

There is a fact..and yet did I not found the answer. The Dutch people don’t use much curtains and have big windows till the ground of the floor. You literally walk pass the houses and through the windows you see people drinking coffee and looking TV on the couch. One reason I heard is related to the Calvinistic roots and philosophy to “allow passers-by a full view of your living quarters and show that you have nothing to hide”. The other reason I heard is that the Dutch people love the sun, so they have big windows and no curtains to gain more sun light. I also heard something about a tax that was paid for owning curtains in the past. But for whatever reason, the architecture and the small houses leaning to all sides are perfect.

Clogs, a wooden shoe with a wooden sole. A lot of countries have them. You can buy it here in all sizes, and some people actually wear them. :)