Today we went to Jacobiparochie, Westhoek and Zwartehaan.
Well one would wonder how can one do so many places on one day, easy ofcourse with a car and limiting your time and most of all good companyand good weather.
JACOBIPAROCHIE:
First of all we went to St. Jacobiparochie and came across a building that looked like a court, but found it was a church, it was dedicated to some sailors who had fought or drowned there, there were graves and some had some sort of heraldry embossed upon the grave stones, and as we walked around the building found that there were three sort of monuments made in shape of a ships rudder and the years 1506 and 1856 cut out of the iron plating.
Around the building in different languages, Dutch, Spanish, French, etc were inscriptions inscrived upon the tiles surrounding the building, also a glass monument was erected.
I found this fascinating as I myself had a uncle who had drowned in 1954, near the French coast, and I love ships and their history, and Friesland is full of these wonderful discoveries.
I stood there by these brave men and thought, this is land that used to be sea, what actually happened there, how wonderful it must have been to see those ships sailing, but what tragedy had occured I do not know.
We then proceeded to walk through Jacobiparochie and found some beautiful gardens and a appel orchard.The gardens were very beautiful and colourful and what I liked most that many of them were just filled with all sorts of flowers and wild, they looked very much like English gardens you find around suffolk in England like 'Woodbrige' and 'Wickham Garden'.
We came across a woman working in her garden and asked her if we could take some photo's, she was rather hesitant and anxious at first, then when she was certain that we were truly interested in her garden she warmed up to talking to us and her mother who was inside came out and also spoke to us, and we found out that the woman was her daughter helping her as she was now too elderly to do her garden, how nice and considerate.
We then thanked them and went on our way and came across the appel orchard, (my first that I have come across in Friesland). We went back to the car and went to Westhoek.
WESTHOEK:
We arrived in Westhoek, and as we stepped out of the car the firstthing that hit you was the strong smell of the sea air, it was humidwith a lovely strong fresh sea breeze with a salty tang, how I miss thesea, if I see, sea, hear and smell it, something inside me makes mefeel happy and carefree, all your troubles seem to melt away, but whatstruck me was that I did not know that the sea was so close too us, Ilive in Leeuwarden, and always thought I had to go to Harlingen, what asurprise I got when Marja took me to Westhoek.
To our right as we stepped out the car and took in the surroundings,there was a old building too our left which I think was the oldestbuilding in Westhoek, a lovely little house, attached to a lot oflittle houses down the street called "Ouldebildtdyk" the house number was 1222, there was some history attached to this house. I think that this used to be a fishing villlage in the old days and perhaps coastguard cottages not sure but this is the impression I get, also thefarmers do not look like farmers but fishermen.
If you stand on the Dyk in Westhoek you can see the sea for miles.We first walked along a little slip lane which was surrounded by sheep on both sides, but they were not very friendly, they would run away from you, they would be laying down in a row down the lane but as you approached they would start bleating and run away also the lambs, odd, they were not like the sheep in "Stavoren", where you could walk on the Dyk and walk between them, they would walk away but not mind you.
We took the photo of the sea from the dyk and then sat down and ate our lunch. When looking to my right I saw a whole lot of birds conggregated on the beach (or sea bed), should I say, I think seagulls.
Marja and I then packed up our lunch and took the path down to the sea, the tide was out and after being used to the sea bed full of soft sand in Durban, South Africa the east coast, what a wonder waited my eyes, I have heard of the wadden sea, (wadden Zee), but this looked like the back of a tortoise shell, the sea bed was cracked, dried in some places and black from silt (slik), and patches of water and coral, the coral was very different than coral in S.A. (South Africa).
After taking our shoes off we started to walk on the beach, Marja took a step in the patch of muddy water and her foot disappeared and was caked with the black silt (now I know why one must have a guide when you go on the wadden walks), as you could easily sink up to waist level, that was a lesson, after that we took to staying on the dry cracked area, but beleive you me it is quite sore on your tender feet, but a lovely experience, here is a photo of the mud on our feet, and also one of me and Marja standing on the sea dyk.
Grace on Sea bed. (author of 'Friesian walks', and former site 'In Friesepas').
it was lovely, after this wewalked back sat on the dyk drinking in the peacefulness and then we putour shoes on and on the horrizon was a ship, it really looked like itwas coming towards us and gliding on mud and not on sea, it wasfantastic, on the photo you can just make out an image of a ship on thehorrizon. we then walked back to the car through the unfriendly sheepand went to Zwartehaan.
ZWARTE HAAN:
At Zwarte Haan there was immediately the intense smell of sea air, but also it was a lot different from Westhoek. It felt more closed in I guess due to the fact most of the area was fenced off, one had to climb over fences and gates.It had interessing historical sights there to be seen.We came across a statue of a siltworker (slikwerker).
Over the years, men came from all over Friesland to work here and reclaim the land, they worked for such little money, long hours, and had to get up very early and cycle or walk for miles to get there to work just so they could feed their families.I know of one person who said his grandfather or great grandfather had to get up at 3 o' clock in the morning to get to work for 6 0' clock and finished at 6 o' clock in the evening and only got home at 9 o' clock at night, then continue the next morning again in this pattern.I take my hat off to these hard working people, to think my forefathers did this too, it is very hard to imagine today we youngsters could not do this, modern world has made us too soft.If you study the statue you can see the exersion on his face as he picks up the shovel full of silt (slik), you can imagine it was not easy as he puts the shovel into the sea bed and he pulls the shovel up with silt the suckshin of the water mixed with the silt made it very difficult to pick up the shovel.All the coral and wild growth of grass and reeds, they had to clear first, then shovel loads of silt into wheel barrows (kroewagens), and build the dyk that is in the background to stop the sea coming into the land where they have reclaimed land and built towns and villages.
We then climbed the fences and gates and explored the dyk, there was a bird preservation area as well, I do not think I have seen so many birds congregated on the sea bed together at one time.We found a platform and stood on it and you could see for miles and miles along the dyk and see the sea, with the wind whipping our hair around and smelling the sea air and the salt it was a fantastic feeling, with this we walked backed to the car found a restaurant, and rounded the day off with having a cup of tea and a plate of chips with mayonnaise (patats met mayonaise), and discussed what we would do after the summer holidays when we would start our walks again, so till then everyone (fijne vacantie) have a lovely summer holiday.
No comments:
Post a Comment