Day 3. Hilarides to Vierhuizen.
It took a few minutes for all of us to get going. The strength of the tailwind had given us some confidence and we felt relaxed about the day's cycling. The route took us through 'het Bildt' an area of land relatively recently reclaimed from the sea. The area was populated by many farmers from the North Holland area (then on the other side of the Zuiderzee now a short drive across the Afsluitdijk) looking for new opportunities.
One result of this migration still appartent today is the dialect (or to some language) 'Bildts' formed from the mixing of North Hollands Dutch with Fries. Having seen a TV program about Bildts I have to say it seems closer to ABN (standard Dutch) than Fries, and quite comprehensible if you are reasonably fluent in Dutch. Recently there has been an upsurge of interest in preserving this curious dialect which from a linguistic point of view can only be a good thing.
Further on we passed through a number of villages on the way all of them seemed to have an old wonky church of some sort or another. In Marrum Paul pointed out the old railway station (Marrum-Wijnkerk) now just a building looking just a little folorn without its tracks. There is actually a surprisingly good network of train lines in this part of the country although obviously fewer than there used to be.
A little further on Paul told us we had to go and have a look at Hegebeintum (Hogebeintum in Dutch). Paul knows a lot about his land and is currently training to be a teacher. From his stream of interesting facts that punctuated our progress, I can imagine he would make a good one. Hegebeintum consisted of a church on a terp surrounded by a few houses. So a quick diversion and a short sharp climb.
So what was so interesting about Hegebeintum? Apart from another church on another 'terp'* it was not entirely clear. However we discovered that we had just parked our bikes on the highest point of the highest terp in the whole of Friesland. Having climbed to the dizzying height of 8.8 metres above sea level (strictly speaking the NAP or 'Normaal Amsterdams Peil') we did not have to worry about altitude sickness, although the view was not that impressive.
We sat and ate some more food on the bench behind the church, while Paul wandered off. It turned out he was looking for the guide, having read a sign on the church. Paul, the guide and a couple of other tourists turned up and in the end we all decided to go in. This turned out to be a good idea as the guide not only was very knowledgeable about the church and local history, he also spoke excellent English.
This church, although similar in form and size to churches in North Holland, looked quite different inside. It felt darker and the walls were adorned with plaques in the honour of the deceased of important local worthies. The interior also looked very crowded as not only were the walls full of the aformentioned plaques but the floor was covered in pews. There was also a very impressive pulpit which on its own could put the fear of God into a good man.
*A terp is a man made mound of earth on which villages were built in estuary areas. This was an early form of land reclamation.