Provincie Friesland Local Custom Tips by nighthawk Top 5 Page for this destination

Bell tower

Throughout the province of Friesland (the most in the south west area)are some remarkable monuments, that being original bell towers.
Building church towers was an expensive thing to do and because people wanted to announce church services and/or the passing away of a fellow villager in a dignified manner, they searched for a cheaper solution, thus coming to build bell towers.

Different parts of Friesland have different way of building a bell tower, ie the towers in Skarsterlan have a so called helmet roof: a kinda hat of 4 equal, curved shape roofings.

The local tourist information service has a nice booklet with a route by these bell towers.

Names of villages and towns

Since the Frisian language was acknowledged, all entrance signs on public roads got, next to the Dutch name of the village/town, a Frisian adding.
It can be rather confusing but just prepare yourself well before you travel.

At first, after the change to language, some signs only showed the Frisian name, but when this turned out to be too confusing, they added the Dutch name as well.

Website: http://%fc %cb http://frgen.andrysstienstra.nl/plak/plakmenu.php?taal=Ned.%f* %c*

Leaver dea as slaef

At the Rea (Red) Klif near the village of Warns (Fryslan) stands a simple monument in memory of the 'Battle near Warns', which occurred in the year 1345.

The Frisians fought a freedom fight against William IV, Count of Henegouwen, Holland and Zeeland.
The inscription on the stone reads: 'Leaver dea as slaef', which means: We prefer death over slavery.
They succeeded in defeating William IV.

There is no archelogical proof of this battle and some people look upon this monument as a symbol of the Frisian identity in a modern time.
It may even be an idealized picture of the "Frisian freedom" during the middle ages, when there was no king or emperor that had power over Friesland.
Those times weren t that easy probably because local potentates fought for power.

Try to at least understand some Frisian

As as I stated earlier, the people of this province are a proud bunch.
The tend to talk solely Frisian sometimes, especially in the more rural areas.
Even their postcards are in Frisian language!

Tige tank means thanks very much!

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