On one of our previous visits to the Netherlands the good lady had, in a shop, admired a hanging embroidery featuring the eleven “cities” of the Elfstedentocht, five of which we subsequently visited last year. It has since been hanging in our home.

The eleven cities are from top: (coat of arms of Friesland,) Leeuwarden, Bolsward, Sloten, Hindeloopen, IJlst, Workum, Dokkum, Franeker, Stavoren, Harlingen and Sneek. I have recently posted photos of the italicised ones and we went to Sneek in 2017. Five still to go then.

Sloten, in Friesland, is another of the eleven “cities” of the Elfstedentocht and the last one we visited on our day trip last June when we were in the Netherlands.

Canal at Sloten, with bridge:-

In the other direction is this bridge and a windmill:-

The windmill:-

The canal beyond the windmill:-

The Protestant Church, Sloten:-

Sloten’s Elfstedentocht fountain is a small pillar of containers of various sorts surmounted by two figures. It’s apparently called the ‘Peewit’:-

We visited four of the Elfstedentocht “cities” of Friesland in one day. Stavoren was the third of them.

Church of St Nicholas. The church is at the end of a short street off the main street.

A canal at Stavoren:-

One of the buildings:-

Its Elfstedentocht fountain is in the form of a fish:-

Not very prepossessing but striking:-

Hindeloopen is a town/village on the IJselmeer (formerly known as the Zuiderzee) in The Netherlands. It is one of the eleven “cities” of the Elfstedentocht.

IJselmeer from seadyke at Hindeloopen:-

A Hindeloopen Street to left of above:-

Going round to the right leads to the harbour and this Lifeboat House. KNRM is the Dutch eqivalent of the RNLI:-

Old lifeboat on slipway down to harbour:-

Moving on round the road is this canal bridge and bell tower:-

View along canal from bridge above:-

Workum is another of the eleven cities known as the Elfstedentocht, in Friesland, The Netherlands, but it’s more of a village really.

The tower in Workum:-

It s Elfstedentocht Fountain is in the form of two stylised rampant lions:-

The pond area to the left above:-

The canal just behind with small road bridge centre and wooden bridge to right:-

In June last year we visited The Netherlands again. One of the day trips we took was to Dokkum, in Friesland.

On the way in to the town fom the car park, along the canal, I spotted this house (in that Dutch fashion known as De Stijl?) which is so Art Deco looking:-

Further on was this scene which is so Dutch it’s almost a cliché, canal and windmill – with lovely bridge added in:-

The Town House in Dokkum has a carillon tower:-

Town House:-

A sculpture in the twon:-

Side view:-

Another almost deco building:-

Dokkum is one of Friesland’s eleven cities between which an ice-skating race known as the Elfstedentocht used to take place when there was ice on the canals. I suspect it’s extremely unlikely ever to be held again as the winters are no longer cold enough long enough for any ice to be safe to skate on. In honour of that history, though, the canal side benches in Dokkum are in the shape of an ice skate:-

In 2018 eleven artists designed a fountain each for the eleven cities. Dokkum’s is known as the Ice Fountain:-

Ice Fountain information:-