WesternEurope

De Alde Feanen’ national park, which is located between Leeuwarden and Drachten in Northern Friesland, as the largest amusement park in Europe. However, Henk de Vries, director of the nature protection organisation ‘It Fryske Gea’ (the Frisian landscape), and Henk Dijkstra, who is director of the ‘Frysk Lânboumuseum’ agricultural museum, believe doing so is sacrilege. http://www.leeuwardenholland.nl/en/

The first buildings to be built in Friesland using natural stone or bricks were stone refuge towers, known in Friesland as ‘stinzen’. ‘Stins’ means stone. These squat towers with rounded peaks served as a refuge for their owners, the farming gentry. These people were the rural aristocracy in Friesland, which had no earls or counts before 1500. http://www.leeuwardenholland.nl/en/

In the summertime, Grou is one of Friesland’s busiest and most pleasant water sports centers. It lies to the south of Leeuwarden, the 2018 European Capital of Culture. The local lake, the Pikmeer, functions as a sort of roundabout, from which you can navigate in all directions. http://www.leeuwardenholland.nl/en/