Frisia Coast Trail.com

Are these white letters on the wall encrypted gibberish to you? With learning a handful of keywords, you'll have deciphered them in no time. Even better, tens of thousands of town names will hold no longer any secrets for you. Each placename will reveal its unique story to you. You will make a great impression on your fellow citizens or travellers! These words reveal everything about the history of the place you are in. Regardless if you travel the Frisia Coast Trail or live

In 1934, while dredging the River Scheldt near the village of Appels in the region of Flanders, workers unearthed an extraordinary ship’s figurehead (see featured image above). Dated to around AD 400, scholars generally agree it is Germanic in origin and hails from the southern North Sea coast. Yet, to this day, no people or nation has laid rightful claim to this remarkable carving. The Vikings may come to mind, but they only began their raids four centuries later—so, these n

If you want to track down who killed the whale, the Frisia Coast Trail region is the place to start. Stop people on the streets along this southern North Sea littoral and ask whether they know anything, and you will likely hear: “I hear nothing, I see nothing, I know nothing.” Politicians and officials—say, in The Hague—will lament that they have no recollection of the affair. Better call them all Ishmael. In this blog post, we set out the unvarnished truth: how the peoples l

The peoples of islands and archipelagos do not let others dictate how to live their lives. One of those archipelagos that meets these criteria as well is the Wadden Sea. For centuries, it is from here that sea explorers, tax evaders, sturdy Arctic whalers, self-righteous women, pirates, privateers, and other vagabonds have come. An archipelago that the Sea Beggars and the earliest trouser-wearing women call home. Even the first atheist of modern times comes from this archipel

Although the conversion of the Woden-devoted Frisians was a slow and cumbersome process that only succeeded in depth in the tenth century, Frisia subsequently turned into the richest ecclesiastical area of Europe. Nowhere else on the Isles and the Continent were there this many monasteries and churches packed together. Even though nearly all monasteries have been dismantled with the advent of Protestantism, to this very day, nowhere in the world can one find as many high-medi

New York City, the Capital of the World. They call it a lot of things: Gotham, the Big Apple, the Empire City, Modern Gomorrah, even Baghdad-on-the-Subway. And of course, Times Square proudly calls itself the Center of the Universe—although the true center of the world is the village of Aegum. And in the middle of all this noise, lights, and skyscraper swagger, portraits of two quiet men from seventeenth-century Friesland—villagers from Peperga and Koudum—hang proudly in two

July 1987. The two Frisian bastards , both being sixteen years old at the time, went to the village of Wijnaldum – Winaem in the Mid-Frisian language. Reason to go was twofold. Firstly, the yearly street kaatsen tournament was taking place that day. Secondly, one of their most beautiful classmates, Gerda, lived close to Wijnaldum. The yearly village games were an unsuspected excuse to see her. Barely had the bastards arrived at the tournament, or they were ordered to leave

Being out on the grasslands may bring you face to face with farmers, fellow wanderers, or—of course—'birdwatchers'; see the note at the end of this blog post. Encounters with these countryside folk unfold in slow motion, and follow a sequence of clearly defined phases. Out here, less is more—just like the empty landscape itself. If you have any intention of mingling with the locals of the griene woastyn (‘green desert’), or hope to receive assistance should you be badly inju

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 Nordendi, also known as Norditi. But by the year 884, the Frisians had had enough. They forged swords and axes, raised an army, and drove the Norsemen out once and for all—at the cost of exactly 10,377 Viking lives. Out of this crisis came an unexpected innovation. The reclaimed land was managed in a new way: eleven centuries ago, the Frisia

Rex illiteratus est quasi asinus coronatus , ‘a king who cannot read is like a crowned donkey’. Or, if you prefer the literal translation, ‘an illiterate king is like a crowned arse’. These are almost thousand-year-old diplomatic words of Bishop John of Salisbury (ca. 1120-1180), expressing the notion that kings and other rulers, in general, should be educated in order to fulfil their task. There is a small area in Frisia where its people choose and crown their kings during t

Tidal marshlands and Frisians, a dual entity. The Chauci and the Frisians—referred to by the Romans as Frisii or Fresones—had learned to adapt to an unprotected yet strangely hospitable salty world: a vast, treeless expanse of tidal marshlands. No rocks, no forests, scarce fresh water, and regularly flooded by a cold, relentless sea. Quoad arbores est quasi nuda—'as for trees, it is almost bare'—is how the marshes of Frisia were once described (De Graaf 2004). Yet despite thi

Last year (2019), one of the Frisian bastards hiked the Pembrokeshire Coast Path in southwestern Wales ( Cymru ), a 290-kilometre-long trail. As every walker knows, hiking, pilgrimage, and spiritual peace are one and the same thing. After nine days of walking, the coast path takes you to the homeland of Saint David, Wales’s patron saint. Saint David is buried in the cathedral of the town of Saint Davids—or in the Welsh language Tyddewi , meaning 'David’s house'—the religious

In this blog post, we will argue that the Frisian lands might just as well be called the United Frisian Emirates. Granted, there are a few superficial differences with the modern United Arab Emirates. The Emiratis have camels and goats; the Frisians have cows and sheep. Their climate is hot and dry; the Frisians’ is wet and cold—for now. With global warming, palm trees may soon line the long dykes of the Wadden Sea and turn its barrier islands into Maldivian-style retreats. A

With the upcoming seasonal festivities at the end of the year, it is appropriate to serve you a flavourful cocktail. It is a cocktail from the list 'Myths of Nations', namely the 'Frisians Cocktail'. Its recipe is not as old as some people thought it was, or would like it to be, but it is still quite a reasonable drink to serve before, during, and after Christmas dinners, or as an aperitif on New Year's Eve! What the heck, on every Sunday morning with strawberries for breakfa

How to settle the scores in medieval Frisia when you killed someone: the function of a weregeld.

September 2018, one of the Frisian bastards hiked the Grande Randonnée 20 in Corsica. Or, as the French say, la GR-vingt . The GR20 is considered Europe’s toughest long-distance trail. And one of the most dangerous, as it turned out. The bastard wanted to experience the similarities of hiking trails that cover territories of Europe’s autochthonous minorities. In this case, comparing the GR20 on Corsica territory with that of the Frisia Coast Trail. And, like hiking the FCT,

It was not the city of Parisius ('Paris'). Nor that of Londinium ('London'). Believe it or not, the early-medieval center for expensive cloth and chic clothing in the northwest of Europe was the muddy Wadden Sea coast. Here the highly sought-after pallia Fresonica ('Frisian cloth') was fabricated and distributed to the wider world. It possessed a quality good enough for red capes of handsome superheroes like Superman and Thor, and for the heklu blá ('blue capes') which Od

This is the story of the land reclaimed from the former Middelzee—a shallow inland sea that once split the present-day province of Friesland in two, separating the ancient pagus Westrachia (modern district Westergo) from pagus Austrachia (modern district Oostergo). The name Middelzee literally means 'middle sea.' Closing this watery rift took centuries. Through a succession of smaller and larger embankments—continuing into the early seventeenth century—new land was steadil

In both Germany and the Netherlands, many Frisians have watched with unease as waves of referenda and separatist movements have swept across Europe and beyond in recent years—Quebec, Scotland, Kurdistan, Catalonia, Padania, and Ambazonia, to name only a few. At the same time, entire peoples such as the Yazidis and the Rohingya have been driven from their homelands. Against this backdrop, the city of Leeuwarden in the province of Friesland prepared to serve as the European Cap

“Dude, take a deep breath and really look at the landscape below. Don’t panic—you’re not alone, and the world isn’t empty. Exhale slowly… let the smoke drift.” near the village of Zurich, province Friesland “Take another sigh and now look at the landscape of the piece below. Feeling better already? You see what I mean, brother? And hey—nice birds, too.” Dag en Nacht 'day and night' by M.C. Escher This is the psychedelic art of a troubled mind. Escher’s bewildering linocu