Friesland

I finally did it, one of the last travel things I've been afraid of. I rented a car and drove in Europe. Granted, we were only in Amsterdam for about 10 minutes, and most of where we spent our time was, as the guy at Enterprise put it, "much slower." It would have been a little faster had I  realized that a passport is required for car rentals and not left mine at home, but fast enough it was. On a raining sideways morning, we finally set off across the Afsluitdijk towards the land of our grandfather's fathers.

The first stop was Harlingen, a port city directly on the North Sea. We stopped to see Bas, Susan, and their family... who I hadn't seen in 8 years! Max is much taller, but otherwise they haven't changed a bit. They put out a spread of loaded bread (chocolate sprinkles to liver spread to apple stroop!) and we spent a few hours waiting for the rain to clear and catching up on the families. As always, we parted saying hopefully next year we'll see them in Washington.

The next stop was Hallum, as sleepy a little Frisian town as I can imagine. There were few people in the streets, and all the little cottages with their lace curtains. The busiest folks around were the ducks and chickens in the farmyard we passed on the outskirts of the city. In the graveyard surrounding the Kirk, we found some Fokkema gravestones, then shook all the doors trying to get a peek into the brick building... until Jon found one that opened to the office, where an electrician was working on the building! He opened up the sanctuary for us and gave us time to wander around, taking photos of the medieval gravestones in the floors and the newly renovated barrel vault ceiling. The electrician showed us the line of ministers on the wall dating back to the late 1800's, and the plaque above them which listed ministers back to the 1500's. We learned that Hallum was originally an island, before the dike was built, or a Terp (pronouced with two syllables as Ter-ip) in Fries.

 

It is a short drive from Hallum to Franeker, which is famous for its Eise Eisinga Planetarium. The wool merchant built a model of the known solar system in the 1770's into the roof of his house. While the thousands of hand built teeth and clockwork mechanism is impressive, I am always just as amazed at how 18th century Frisian traders organized their lives into their long, narrow houses. It's hard to imagine a modern dutchman sleeping in a tiny cupboard bed!

 

 

As has become my habit, the last stop before leaving Friesland is at the Poffertjes stand at the end of the inner harbor in Harlingen. Opa and Oma took me there 11 years ago, when they picked me up after my summer program in Bremen. I went there with Ana 3 years later, before we boarded our train to Paris... I don't know how long it will be until I sit down at their red-and-white tables and watch the boats come and go through the drawbridges, but until then this memory will have to hold me over!