Up North
I visited the two northernmost provinces of the Netherlands, Groningen and Friesland.
On the way there I just stared through window of the train at the countryside which is strewn with sheep, cows and beautiful, huge, black Frisian horses.
Groningen is the capital of the province with the same name and it is one of the university towns you can choose from for the Erasmus semester with our department of Dutch so I kind of felt like I should visit even though I went the Flemmish way to Antwerp.
It is a relaxed place (not counting the drunk who was chasing me across the square) with nice architecture and cozy corners. The coziest of which might be Princenhof which used to be a monastery, a seat of bishop and after the reformation a house of the stadtholder. The garden of Princenhof reminded me of one dream where I was strolling around lost in a circular garden which was small but maze-like. It was one of those weird moments when I visited a place I dreamt about. They also serve tea there :)
The Museum of Groningen is built on an artificial island on a channel and looks rather cool.
Friesland is famous for its horses, distinct culture and language - related to English. (Frisian was a "compulsory optional" course at our uni - we could either pick Frysk or Afrikaans, one of 11 official languages of South Africa, and get them completely messed up with Dutch we were learning. Oh, memories!)
Among the famous natives of the capital Leeuwarden are for example M.C.Escher and Mata Hari.
I did not stay long in Leeuwarden because the real northern weather caught up with me but at least I saw its leaning tower which leans even further than the tower of Pisa and kind of makes you lean with it. It does not look very safe.
Oh, and the flag of the province is cute.
The rest of the album
On the way there I just stared through window of the train at the countryside which is strewn with sheep, cows and beautiful, huge, black Frisian horses.
Groningen is the capital of the province with the same name and it is one of the university towns you can choose from for the Erasmus semester with our department of Dutch so I kind of felt like I should visit even though I went the Flemmish way to Antwerp.
It is a relaxed place (not counting the drunk who was chasing me across the square) with nice architecture and cozy corners. The coziest of which might be Princenhof which used to be a monastery, a seat of bishop and after the reformation a house of the stadtholder. The garden of Princenhof reminded me of one dream where I was strolling around lost in a circular garden which was small but maze-like. It was one of those weird moments when I visited a place I dreamt about. They also serve tea there :)
The Museum of Groningen is built on an artificial island on a channel and looks rather cool.
Friesland is famous for its horses, distinct culture and language - related to English. (Frisian was a "compulsory optional" course at our uni - we could either pick Frysk or Afrikaans, one of 11 official languages of South Africa, and get them completely messed up with Dutch we were learning. Oh, memories!)
Among the famous natives of the capital Leeuwarden are for example M.C.Escher and Mata Hari.
I did not stay long in Leeuwarden because the real northern weather caught up with me but at least I saw its leaning tower which leans even further than the tower of Pisa and kind of makes you lean with it. It does not look very safe.
Oh, and the flag of the province is cute.
The rest of the album