Flatland

Yes we are back from our holidays in Holland. We were staying in Friesland, in the north of the country, near Sneek. It's sort of like the lake district in England, but without the hills. And I mean without any hills whatsoever. Not even the teeniest slope.

The journey was easy - from Bury St Edmunds it is only about an hour to Harwich, where we took the Stena Line High Speed Ferry to Hoek of Holland (crossing time 3 hrs 40 mins). Then it was another 2 1/2 hours to where we had a Landhuis holiday home at
Landgoed Esinga State between St Nicolasgaa and Langweer.

The former farm buildings, in the centre of estate, have been transformed into a restaurant. The seats outside are a reminder what Friesland is famous for...

... its Friesian cows.

There are lakes and canals everywhere. I'm sure there must be many times more boats than cars as a result. Here's the harbour at Hindeloopen, for example.

In Joure, the nearest town of any size to where we were, we found a rather charming "Shanty Festival" taking place in the main street.

Each of the choirs had their own nautical uniform. We got to the festival just in time to hear the last item on the programme - a singalong with all the choirs together (and audience participation too), including a rousing rendition of "John Brown's Body", sung in English, but with rather less reverent lyrics than the original!

We got to see and do all sorts of interesting things, kayaking, kite surfing (no we only watched that!) and, of course, cycling. Wow, they sure are bike-friendly. Dedicated cycle paths go alongside all the major roads and in the villages, where cycles share the road with vehicles, the speed limit is only 30 km/hr. And there are no hills!

We visited several of the "11 cities" - Sloten, population c1000, was the most charming, but the best thing we went to was the National Model Railway Museum. Here you can spend hours playing with the trains. And we did.

But for one small boy, his favourite thing was...

... the tractor in the play park on the holiday estate! I think he must be a natural Tractor Boy.

You can see loads more pictures from our holiday here.