Hindeloopen

Hindeloopen traded directly with Scandinavia and the Baltic in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the wealth and the contact produced something specific: Hindelooper schilderwerk, a style of painted furniture and interiors in dense floral and scrollwork patterns on red, green and blue grounds, showing Scandinavian and Baltic influence, applied to cupboards, chairs, boxes and whole rooms. It is still made and taught in the town. The place also kept its own dialect, distinct even within Frisian, and its own costume. It is very small - a harbour, a canal, wooden bridges and a leaning church tower - and it holds the Eerste Friese Schaatsmuseum, the skating museum, covering the Elfstedentocht and Dutch skating generally, which matters here because Hindeloopen is one of the eleven cities on the route and the last tour was in 1997.

What you actually see

• Hindelooper painted furniture - the dense floral style, still made and taught here.
• A distinct dialect - separate even within Frisian, kept by the Baltic trade contact.
• The skating museum - the Elfstedentocht and Dutch skating, in one of the eleven cities.
• A very small harbour town - canal, wooden bridges and a leaning church tower.

When to go

April to October. A day.

Honest expectations

It is tiny - a few hours. Museums close on Mondays and shorten in winter. Painted furniture sold as Hindelooper is not always made here. The Elfstedentocht has not run since 1997.

Nearby

Workum and Makkum are north; Stavoren is south.