Frisia Coast Trail.com

This is not a blog post about the current agriculture and nitrogen debates between the government in Brussels and farmers in Flanders,...

Imagine this: one day your husband brings home a young, unmarried woman. A virgin, even. He simply takes her into your house, openly shows her affection—and who knows what else. But that is not all. He also gives this maiden full access to your pantry and your savings account, which she—for crying out loud—starts spending on charity. And when you dare to speak up, your husband brushes you off by comparing you to the jealous queen in Snow White , or Cinderella’s evil stepmothe

In the Middle Age lived a once promiscuous girl named Elisabeth. She had come to repentance, found honourable employ as a maid, and had...

Pagare il fio  is Italian for 'paying the penalty,' though literally it means 'paying the fee,' a phrase inherited from the northern peoples—the so-called Barbarians—who toppled the Western Roman Empire. The English word fee  comes from Old English feoh , which survives as fee  in Mid Frisian, vee  in Dutch, and Vieh  in German, all meaning 'cattle.' The Anglo-Frisian rune ᚠ, feh , likewise signified 'wealth.' The literal sense of pagare il fio  is therefore 'paying the cattl

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

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

On May 5th, 2018, it was exactly two centuries since Karl Marx was born. When the good man published the first volume of Das Kapital  in 1867, he was, in fact, about 1,300 years too late to turn the tide. The ship had already sailed—quite literally. Ships of selfish and ruthless Frisian merchants in pursuit of personal wealth, to be precise. If only Karl had known... the world might have looked—let’s say—a little different today. One might say that the Frisians had much in c

King Redbad died in 719. Some 1300 years later, as a tribute a  movie  about this Frisian king will hit the silver screen in the Dutch cinemas. Redbad repeatedly ended up fighting his neighbours, the Franks. Where and how often will be explored in this article. As a hikers blog that follows the whereabouts of Frisian history, we are especially interested in specific battle locations in order to add them in our trail itinerary. How often and where Redbad battled is pretty u

Ever heart of Aldgisl ? Even if you did, you probably have a hard time separating fact from fiction. For a fact it is the first king of the Dutch lowlands known to have lived. But is Redbad his real son? Follow us in our deep dive into ancient historical sources. Recently King Redbad became a hot topic. In the summer of 2018 a movie about this Frisian king will hit the silver screen in the Dutch cinemas. Redbad is the direct successor of Aldgisl. He repeatedly ended up figh

Around the year 440 (Shippey 2022), a betrayal unfolded on the southern shores of the North Sea—a tragedy not forgotten in north-western Europe, echoing even in distant Bavaria. And it never will be. We are talking about the bloody battle at the citadel of King Finn—or Fin Folcwalding Fresna cynne , as he is called in the Anglo-Saxon poem Widsið . This poem, dating from the early tenth century, recounts the fate of Finn, son of Folcwald and young king of the Frisian tribe. It