Friesland: Boating on the Waterways

Friesland has an extensive system of lakes and waterways, for commercial use as well as for tourism and pleasure. It is possible to cross the whole country with a recreational boat as there are over 6,000 km of navigable canals, rivers and lakes in the Netherlands. Friesland is unbelievably beautiful when viewed from the boat and is a unique experience as you can sail past agricultural land and through quaint, historic towns and villages.

It is really interesting to watch the bridges open and close
with the intricate technology system.
It is a unique experience
to see the pavement go up as
the boats sail through.
Here is a great blog that explains it:
Adventures on the Canals...

We spent an afternoon with our family on their houseboat.
We leisurely navigated the canals to sail
across the Sneekermeer
where we saw many sail boats
enjoying a lovely, warm and sunny afternoon.

Famous Water Tower of Sneek

Vacationers dock their boat
to go into Sneek
for their shopping...
by bike or walking.
We also enjoyed a gezellig afternoon
of shopping with family here,
followed by coffee and gebak.

Many seaside villages have small-scale model boats
in their windows on display.

Fishing is still the mainstay of this town of Urk,
with tourism a close second,
as shown in the following photos:

Windsurfing on the Tsjukemar

Beautiful 100 year old Swedish wood craft boat
owned and operated by our friends,
W&J,who kindly took us on a canal tour
from Berlikum to Franeker

Boats docked in Leeuwarden,
Friesland's capital city,
where we enjoyed an afternoon
of great shopping
with our friend J
(this is where I bought my boots...made for walking:)

We spent an afternoon in Hindeloopen,
enjoying the city as well as this old port/harbour,
situated on the Ijsselmeer.

The shipping trade brought prosperity to the town,

which later became a city.Hindeloopen is now mainly a tourist attraction
for the waterways as well as for this unique art.

We spent a day in Amsterdam and took the canal tour
through the city which features 160 canals and 1,000 bridges.
Of course we only took a one hour, so we covered just a

small part of the city.

"Taking a canal cruise in Amsterdam is probably the most popular tourist attraction, with over 3 million passengers a year choosing to enjoy a canal cruise from one of Amsterdam’s many operators. They do so for a very good reason, as the city was built to be seen from the canals."

Skutsjes in Langweer