Jelle Dam was a socialist activist who helped illuminate the living conditions of agricultural workers in rural Friesland.

This replica of his last house is the final exhibit as you go round De Spitkeet anti-clockwise:-

Jelle Dam fared reasonably out of his writing. The interior is well appointed:-

Like many such houses one of the rooms was given over to being a shop selling produce grown on the land (plus some other.) These shops were usually tended to by the wife:-

The Spitkeet (see previous post) acreage is centred round a collapsed pingo, a depression formed after ice age permafrost melted. They are usually filled with water. The landscape of Friesland and parts of Groningen Province contains quite a few pingos.

Pingo and bridge:-

The bridge:-

The pingo from the bridge. The Mallemolen (see previous post, is to the left in the middle distance):-

De Spitkeet is an open air rural museum near Harkema, Friesland, The Netherlands. A spitkeet was  akind of Earth-house.

The first exhibit you come to is a building called the Mallemolen:-

The Mallemolen acted as a poorhouse. The coldest room, on the northeast, was given to the latest arrivals and when others became available they would move into those:-

The rooms look not too bad though:-

Box beds:-

Near the Mallemolen was a stork’s nest:-

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.

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:-

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:-

Last June we once again visited the good lady’s brother and his family in The Netherlands. They live on the outskirts of Opende, on the border of Groningen and Friesland provinces.

Imagine our surprise when we came across an outbreak of pirate iconography on our first walk into the village. This mock-up of a ship from what seemed to be items lying about a farmer’s field was our first inkling:-

In the village itself there was lots of bunting festooned on the houses and gardens. This house also has an araucaria (monkey puzzle) tree:-

As well as bunting, this house also had a flag of Groningen province on display. Many houses in The Netherlands fly their province flag:-

In the town proper the Valkery Festival seemed to be the source of the pirate theme:-

The entrance featured an inflatable octopus:-

More than a few houses had embraced the pirate theme:-

There’s something satisfying about a town which has water in or near its centre. It nearly always brightens the place up.

Sneek (it’s pronounced snake) is a town in Friesland, in the north of The Netherlands.

Like a lot of towns in Flanders and most in The Netherlands, Sneek is built around canals. This one was right beside the road leading into the town from the motorway. The town centre is just off to the right.

We parked by the side of this (different) canal:-

That was after having crossed this bridge to get to the canalside:-

And this canal is in the middle of a shopping street. Notice the “Christmas Light” style hangings over the canal:-

Along with more standard light fittings these also appeared over the “normal” streets:-

The design is in the shape of the Waterpoort, a prominent feature of Sneek’s townscape which I’ll post about later.

This is another beautiful, leafy canal in Sneek:-

A bit further along the same canal was this striking modern theatre:-

When visiting Belgium and The Netherlands in May last year I took a wrong exit and ended up heading north on a slightly different motorway from the one I intended. (Btw Dutch motorways are brilliant I have to say.)

As a result we passed directly beside the Abe Lenstra Stadium, home of SC Heerenveen, who play in the top level of Dutch football, the Eredivisie. I note that the team plays in the colours of the flag of Friesland.

The stadium is named after Abe Lenstra, the club’s most famous player, even though the era in which he played was not the club’s most successful.

The pictures were snatched (not by the driver) as we drove past.