North Sea | frisia-coast-trail

Odin’s Ravens ruled over the southern shores. Not the Hammer of Thor

Hans Faber

Jun 920 min read

Odin’s Ravens ruled over the southern shores. Not the Hammer of Thor

When re-enactors bring to life early-medieval Frisia, you regularly see them wearing a little iron hammer on a leather cord around their...

A Croaking Ode to the Haubarg by the Eiderstedter Nachtigall

Hans Faber

Jul 23, 202330 min read

A Croaking Ode to the Haubarg by the Eiderstedter Nachtigall

Haubargs . Cathedral-like farmsteads with hipped-shaped roofs up to twenty meters high that were, and are, icons of the peninsula of...

Who's Afraid of Voracious Woolf? - the Dread Beast is Back

Hans Faber

Nov 25, 202227 min read

Who's Afraid of Voracious Woolf? - the Dread Beast is Back

Who's afraid of Jóða Fenris , ‘the offspring of Fenrir’? Afraid of hund hrynsævar hræva , ‘the hound of the roaring sea corpses’? Who,...

To the end where it all began: ribbon Ribe in Jutland

Hans Faber

May 7, 202214 min read

To the end where it all began: ribbon Ribe in Jutland

Let's go to the omega. To the end of the Frisia Coast Trail . To Ribe in southern Jutland, Denmark. The oldest town in Scandinavia. A...

Harbours, Hookers, Heroines and Women in Masquerade

Hans Faber

Mar 20, 202276 min read

Harbours, Hookers, Heroines and Women in Masquerade

Dockyards, quays, terminals, warehouses, wharves, anchorages, lighthouses and beacons. Craftsmen, shipping companies, customs, pilotage...

Hans Faber

Nov 14, 202113 min read

Come to rescue The Rolling Sheep

Hiking requires careful preparation, including personal safety. What do you put in your First Aid Kit? Do you possess basic first aid...

Hans Faber

Oct 31, 202110 min read

♫ They want you as a new recruit ♫

'In the navy', is a song of village people. Of the small villages along the southern coast of the North Sea. A water people once united...

Hans Faber

Sep 5, 202138 min read

Well, the Thing is ...

The heart of Western democracies is the joint assembly of Parliament, Cabinet, and High Councils of State. Its Celtic-Germanic origin is...

A Frontier known as Watery Mess: the Coast of Flanders

Hans Faber

Aug 9, 202151 min read

A Frontier known as Watery Mess: the Coast of Flanders

At the end of the eighth century, by decree of Charlemagne and under the supervision of the wise men Wlemar and Saxmund, the customary...

Hans Faber

Jul 31, 20216 min read

The raider’s portrait from Appels

In the year 1934, while dredging upstream the River Scheldt near the village of Appels in the region of Flanders, an extraordinary ship’s...

Hans Faber

Apr 24, 202160 min read

Happy Hunting Grounds in the Arctic

If you want to find out who’s responsible for killing the whale, the Frisia Coast Trail area is the prime spot to look. When you stop...

Rowing souls of the dead to Britain: the ferryman of Solleveld

Hans Faber

Nov 15, 202014 min read

Rowing souls of the dead to Britain: the ferryman of Solleveld

In 2004, a unique discovery was made at the early-medieval grave field of Solleveld, just south of the city of The Hague: a boat grave....

Hans Faber

Jul 6, 202017 min read

Rats with Wings, or Masters of the Sky

Over the last few years, we've written about the tall and weird-looking people living in the twilight zone of sea and land: the coastal...

Merciless Medieval Merchants and Slavers

Hans Faber

Jun 19, 202010 min read

Merciless Medieval Merchants and Slavers

Earliest proof of Frisian merchants, or kāpmon in the Old Frisian language, trading in slaves dates from the first half of the seventh...

Hans Faber

May 16, 20208 min read

Latið meg ei á Frísaland fordervast!

Latið meg ei á Frísaland fordervast! 'Do not let me perish in Friesland!' A cry-out of a Faroese young woman when she was being...

Atlantis found! Wait, there is another one, or 7, wait 12 in total... No, 19!

Frans Riemersma

May 5, 202013 min read

Atlantis found! Wait, there is another one, or 7, wait 12 in total... No, 19!

Frisia could easily claim the title: land of Atlantis. 19 inhabited islands and 244 villages drowned along the old Frisian coast trail...

Our civilization - It all began with piracy

Hans Faber

Apr 26, 202042 min read

Our civilization - It all began with piracy

The arrival of the Romans in the northwest of Europe at the beginning of the era, with the River Rhine as a frontier, was the starting...

Hans Faber

Apr 13, 202016 min read

The Batwing Doors of Northwest Europe

“Is seaport Maasvlakte the gateway of north-western Europe? No? Is it Europoort then? No? Is it the Botlek port area? Is it Vlaardingen?...

Out of averting the inevitable a community was born

Hans Faber

Mar 25, 202033 min read

Out of averting the inevitable a community was born

On March 25, 2020, the coronavirus pandemic was climbing towards its second peak. There was uncertainty about how destructive the...

Sailors escaped from Cyclops, but saw World's End

Hans Faber

Feb 26, 20207 min read

Sailors escaped from Cyclops, but saw World's End

"Reason I'm late for class? Well, you know, there was a strange cat in our barn this morning, and I stepped in its poop. Therefore, I...

Frisia Coast Trail.com

The 1,000 mile coastal hike for people with fear of heights
and interest in 2,500 years of living on the sharp edge of land and sea