{"id":2189,"date":"2015-01-10T00:58:41","date_gmt":"2015-01-10T00:58:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelcake.site\/?p=2189"},"modified":"2025-05-07T20:16:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T20:16:18","slug":"friesland-the-netherlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/friesland-the-netherlands\/","title":{"rendered":"A peek into Friesland’s past, The Netherlands"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a sunny September Friday when we set off for the north of the Netherlands. Having never ventured that far up in our neighbouring country, we instinctively packed our warmest jumpers and scarves.
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153With a name that roughly translates to \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcFreeze land,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 it must<\/em> be exceptionally cold up there,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d we nodded jokingly.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been wanting to check out Friesland<\/strong> for a while, but somehow it had never happened. This time was different: our Frisian friends and former neighbours in Bali had just moved back to their homeland\u00e2\u20ac\u201dfinally giving us an excellent reason to drive all the way up.<\/p>\n

Besides reconnecting, we were eager to get a feel for the local culture. Did you know Frisians have their own flag<\/strong>, their own language<\/strong>, and their own customs<\/strong>? Their language\u00e2\u20ac\u201dFries<\/em>\u00e2\u20ac\u201disn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even understandable to Dutch speakers!<\/p>\n

We were lucky to arrive during the Flaeijel Festival<\/strong>, a cultural celebration that showcases traditional Frisian countryside life. Nearly everyone was dressed in historical garments, speaking Fries (as they often do in everyday life), and taking part in all sorts of rustic activities.
My only regret? Not tracking down a costume rental booth\u00e2\u20ac\u201dI would have happily swapped my modern clothes for a proper peasant outfit!<\/p>\n

\"Friesland<\/a>
women doing laundry the old-school way<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Friesland<\/a>
horseback riding in a dress can be done!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Friesland<\/a>
veggies for sale<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Friesland<\/a>
Frisian cooking<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Friesland<\/a>
beans with sweet syrup, bacon and gherkins<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Friesland<\/a>
star anise is one of the spices often used for deserts and drinks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Friesland<\/a>
“spin your own jumping rope”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Friesland<\/a>
pimped up tractors<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Friesland<\/a>
clog boots<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Friesland<\/a>
real vintage<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"never<\/a>
never realised how small a pony is<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Friesland<\/a>
distilling the local “moonshine”…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"friesland<\/a>
…and the bar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Friesland<\/a>
kids fun fair<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Friesland<\/a>
traditional dance and music<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We spent hours wandering through the event, learning about and experiencing the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153old ways\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of Frisian rural life. It truly felt like a step back in time\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand what a great way to get to know Friesland.<\/p>\n

After immersing ourselves in history, we dove into Frisian culture the best way we knew how: through food and drink<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

We kicked things off with the ever-classic bitterballen<\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u201ddeep-fried breadcrumb balls filled with a creamy meat ragout. While they might not sound particularly appetizing, trust me, when they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re homemade, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re incredible.<\/p>\n

Next up: a juicy Frisian steak<\/strong>, sourced from local grass-fed cows\u00e2\u20ac\u201dperfectly cooked and packed with flavour.<\/p>\n

For dessert, we sampled Frisian sugar bread<\/strong> (Fryske s\u00c3\u00bbkerb\u00c3\u00b4le<\/em>), which differs from regular sugar bread with its whopping 40% sugar content. And just when we thought we couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t handle any more sweetness, we were served Oranjekoek<\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u201da bright pink almondy cake often enjoyed with afternoon coffee. A bit too<\/em> sweet for my taste, but worth the try.<\/p>\n

To cap off the evening, we sipped Dokkumer coffee<\/strong>, a coffee infused with sugar and a spiced Frisian liquor called Berenburg<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Frisian<\/a>
from top left: dokkumer coffee, toasted Frisian sugar bread with ice cream, bitterballen and Heineken, Frisian grass fed beef<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Though we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have time to explore much more of Friesland, what we did<\/em> see absolutely won us over. The small, tranquil villages, the maze of waterways, and the subtle cultural differences made it feel like we had left the Netherlands entirely.<\/p>\n

Friesland<\/strong> might only be a few hours’ drive from the capital, but it truly feels like another country.<\/p>\n

\"Friesland\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The next Flaeijel Festival<\/a> takes place on 24\u00e2\u20ac\u201c26 September 2015<\/strong>\u00e2\u20ac\u201dif you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re keen on diving into a lesser-known corner of the Netherlands, mark your calendar.<\/p>\n

Did you know about Friesland? Have you been to a “live museum”?<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The post “a peek into Friesland’s past” first appeared on Travel Cake<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a sunny September Friday when we set off for the north of the Netherlands. Having never ventured that far up in our neighbouring country, we instinctively packed our warmest jumpers and scarves.\u00e2\u20ac\u0153With a name that roughly translates to \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcFreeze land,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 it must be exceptionally cold up there,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d we nodded jokingly. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been wanting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[109,93],"tags":[11,67,20,27,46,64],"country":[188],"class_list":["post-2189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-the-netherlands","tag-europe","tag-festivals","tag-off-the-beaten-track","tag-photo-essay","tag-quirky","tag-short-getaway","post_format-post-format-image","country-the-netherlands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2189"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5013,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2189\/revisions\/5013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2189"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelcake.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=2189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}