Friesland
Friday, April 27
After another big Dutch breakfast, we started out for a drive in the countryside of Friesland. We drove north of Leeuwarden and stopped in the little town of Dokkum .
John Anton
We also stopped in Twijzel for a good example of a farmhouse attached directly to the barn, as so many farmhouses are in that area.
John Anton
From Twijzel we tried to follow a route featuring the terpen (the plural of terp), the mounds upon which the Friesians built some of their buildings to be safe from the floods. The height of these terpen ranged from 6 to 20 feet and their size from 2 to 30 acres. We lost the route and didn't see a terp until we got to the small town of Bertgum where we saw a beautiful old church on a terp about 10 feet above the surrounding land.
After another big Dutch breakfast, we started out for a drive in the countryside of Friesland. We drove north of Leeuwarden and stopped in the little town of Dokkum .
We also stopped in Twijzel for a good example of a farmhouse attached directly to the barn, as so many farmhouses are in that area.
From Twijzel we tried to follow a route featuring the terpen (the plural of terp), the mounds upon which the Friesians built some of their buildings to be safe from the floods. The height of these terpen ranged from 6 to 20 feet and their size from 2 to 30 acres. We lost the route and didn't see a terp until we got to the small town of Bertgum where we saw a beautiful old church on a terp about 10 feet above the surrounding land.
The next town we drove to was Ferwerd, another ancestral
town for both Elizabeth and Don. The church tower in the background is from
a 1703 church where some of our ancestors probably worshipped. It was
noon while we were there so we ate our lunch of wheat rolls which we had bought
in the Leeuwarden bakery the day before along with some good Dutch spiced
cheese.
John Anton
John Anton
We also drove through the ancestral towns of Marrum
and Berlikum, but we did not find any old churches or buildings to look
at. We did, however find another beautiful example of a church built
on a terp in the little town of Hijum.
Although we didn't see many cows because of the hoof
and mouth disease, we did see some black Frisian horses and a lot of sheep.
John Anton
On to