Friesland

After a couple of days touring Amsterdam and a dubious, rainy day-trip to Bruges, which teetered between the unfortunate beer-spilled-on-camera and longer-than-necessary train ride incidents and the always wonderful Belgian chocolate, fries, and beer consumption, we piled into the car and drove north to Friesland.  

Friesland is one of the northernmost provinces of the Netherlands and has a reputation of being home to sturdy, independent, country-folk.  To get there from Amsterdam, we drove across the Afsluitdijk, the 20-mile long, 100-yard wide dyke that closes off the bay from the North Sea.  We first stopped in the old shipping town of Harlingen, which is a beautiful seaside town that reminded Jan of her trips to Maine.  We had a little lunch and walked around a bit before heading inland to the tiny village of Aldeboarn.  

Jan's ancestors on her father's side were Dutch and some of them sailed to America after leaving Aldeboarn.  It was an incredibly small village, with maybe 200 homes, 1 church, and a small elementary school.  The church was built in 1753 and was no doubt the same church her family attended.  The church's graveyard was full of headstones with the name Dijkstra, from which Jan's family became Dykstra.  We were able to enter the church (the preacher was preparing for the next day's service and the organ player was practicing, which was pretty amazing).  Unfortunately, neither of them spoke English, so we weren't able to share with them or explain our trip.  Still, it was very cool to get an idea of how and where Jan's people were from.  Here are some pictures of the interior and exterior of the church: