Frisia Coast Trail.com

Frisia could easily claim the title: land of Atlantis. 19 inhabited islands and 244 villages drowned along the old Frisian coast trail in the past 1,500 years. We bet there are more out there... Atlantis emerged in the writings of Greek philosopher Plato. That was around 350 BC. In two of his dialogues, the "Temaeus" and the "Critas", he mentions the lost city. Atlantis was not only known for its mysterious civilisation, but even more for its cataclysmic destruction some 7,

The arrival of the Romans in north-western Europe at the beginning of the Common Era, with the River Rhine as their northern frontier, marked the starting point for five centuries of widespread piracy. These raids affected not only the coasts of Britannia and northern Gaul but rippled as far as the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. The heartland of this piracy was the coastal region stretching from the Lower River Rhine to the River Elbe, including parts of the inland—roughly

Is the seaport Maasvlakte the gateway to north-western Europe? No? How about Europoort? Still no? What about the Botlek port area? Or the...

On March 25, 2020, the coronavirus pandemic was climbing towards its second peak. There was uncertainty about how destructive the...

"Why am I late to class? Oh, you're gonna love this—there was this random cat in our barn this morning, right? Total stranger. And guess what? I stepped right in its poop . Yep. So before I could even think about school, I had to deal with the whole mess—literally scrubbing my shoes like it was a crime scene. That’s why I’m late, I swear!" A similar pretext was made by a group of Frisian sailors in the year 1040. These sea dogs claimed they had sailed to the North Pole, escap

By the middle of the ninth century, the Vikings had carved out a more or less permanent foothold in Frisia, in the pagus  'territory' of...

Brooklyn. Named after the charming village of Breukelen in the Netherlands. Its original Frisian name was Attingahem. With only a twist...

Rex illiteratus est quasi asinus coronatus, ‘a king who cannot read is like a crowned donkey’. Or, if you prefer the literal translation,...

Tidal marshlands and Frisians, a dual entity. The Chauci and the Frisians—referred to by the Romans as Frisii  or Fresones —had learned...

Master blacksmith Wayland is well known from Germanic mythology. According to legend, he was imprisoned on a small island at sea but escaped using wings of his own making. Saxons, Anglo-Saxons, Norwegians, Icelanders, Goths—in fact nearly all early Germanic peoples—preserved stories or artifacts relating to Wayland. Even the Franks did. All except one: the Frisians. And yet, as it turns out, Frisia may possess the oldest claim of all. Several early-medieval gold solidi  beari

The hearth was, in pre- and early medieval times, the Holy of Holies. The heart of the family. Where you would lay back and groove. Groove on the sound of the endless rains on the thatched roof, or on the sound of seawater at your feet below. Splashing against the grassy slopes of your house platform. A lifted place that was warm and soulful, filled with good spirits and minds. But how did those early Frisians manage to keep evil spirits, vile creatures, and sickness at bay?

Last year (2019), one of the Frisian bastards hiked the Pembrokeshire Coast Path in southwestern Wales ( Cymru ), a 290-kilometre-long...

According to medieval legend, around the year 800, Charlemagne and Pope Leo clashed with the citizens of Rome. The Pope was attacked and...

In the year 516, King Hygelac of the Geats, a tribe in, probably, the southeast of Sweden, raided Frisia. Back then, this part of the Netherlands was an impenetrable land with big rivers, little streams, swamps, peat bogs, and damp forests covered with moss and mould. Hygelac's expedition into Frisia was less fortunate, as he was killed and not one of the other Geatish raiders made it home with booty. From the Old English epic poem Beowulf, we know that King Hygelac was weari

Who has not dined at least once in an '80s Chinese restaurant that carried the name 万里长城  ('Great Wall of China')? Certainly, you have been at least once at one of these restaurants for take-away, with the white plastic boxes wrapped in paper sheets, with prawn crackers and a small cup of sambal sauce ('chili paste'). Oh yes, you have! Part of the interior is, of course, an aquarium with big orange and white goldfish, and a relief painting of the magnificent wall, gliding lik