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stage 8: North Frisia

River Eider (DE) to River Vidå (DK)

  • Length: 370 km (230 miles) in 18 sections

  • Terrain: flat

  • Region: North Frisia

 

​From the River Eider to the Vidå (Widuu in North-Frisian language, meaning widow) marking the border with Denmark. During this stage you can still see old terps (Warften) at the Halligen of Kreis Nordfriesland (North Frisia) in Germany ‘in action’ when surrounded by sea during seasonal flooding, or western storms in autumn, winter and spring.

 

​Trail Sections

  • section 8.1: Tönning – Garding

  • section 8.2: Garding – SPO

  • section 8.3: SPO – Westerhever

  • section 8.4: Westerhever – Uelvesbüll

  • section 8.5: Uelvesbüll – Husum

  • section 8.6: Husum – ferry at Norderhafen

  • section 8.7: circuit Island Pellworm

  • section 8.8: ferry at Norderhafen – Bredstedt

  • section 8.9: Bredstedt – Bordelum

  • section 8.10: Bordelum – Stedesand

  • section 8.11: Stedesand – Dagebüll

  • section 8.12: Wijk auf Föhr – Utersum

  • section 8.13: Utersum – Wijk auf Föhr

  • section 8.14: Dagebüll – Neukirchen

  • section 8.15: Neukirchen – Rudbøl

  • section 8.16: Rudbøl – Morsum

  • section 8.17: Morsum – Rantum

  • section 8.18: Rantum – List​

 

Description

Nordfriesland is a colony of mainly East-Frisians. They came in two migration waves. The first wave during the Early Middle Ages, and the second during the High Middle Ages. Both migration waves came from East Frisia or the southern North Sea coast. It was the second flow of colonists that started to build terps and dikes as familiar already in the salt-marsh areas of Mid Frisia and East Frisia. For more detailed information on this migration history of Nordfriesland, check our post Beacons of Nordfriesland.

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​This stage covers first the peninsula Eiderstedt, where the North-Frisian language has been lost, and replaced by Low-Saxon, and, of course, German today. From Eiderstedt you walk along the coastal strip and visit the islands and Halligen of Nordfriesland. Here it is still possible to find people talking one of the many North-Frisian speeches, if you are lucky. It is at the very brink of extinction, so go quick!

 

Much of the Wadden Sea archipelago has a history of whale hunting, but the Nordfriesen in particular were famous skilled whalers and commanders on ships of the Dutch Republic (Amsterdam) during between the second half of the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries. Read our post Happy Hunting Grounds in the Arctic for more about this unique history.

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Recommended posts for this stage

 

Photo’s

​For a first, visual impression of this stage, click here.

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Trail Map

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