And You Thought They Were Just Pretty Horses...

I started a poll over on KLR650.net to take a poke at some of the yankees there and this fella popped up from the Netherlands.

Location: Amsterdam NL
Posts: 241
Rep Power: 3


Besides forcing the US civil war on me at school way back, I was forced to watch "North & South" every week by the Wifey last Century too...

Much obliged Mmam..... I use to tell her

But I still think the whole idea sucks....We have the Friezian people in the North that claim to have their own language, laws and intrest in autonomy too.....just cant grasp the concept of being "different" or "better" from the rest....

So, I did a little research 'cause the only Friesians I know have feathers on their feet. (Yes, I know that you know what 'feathers' are, SB.) Imagine my surprise.

From Wikipedia:

Friesland distinguishes itself from the other eleven Dutch provinces through having its own language, which is also spoken in a minor part of the province of Groningen, to the east. Closely related languages, East Frisian ("Seeltersk", which is different from "East Frisian (Ostfriesisch)", a collection of Low German dialects of East Frisia) and North Frisian, are spoken in the Saterland and in North Friesland areas in Germany, respectively.

The English language is also closely related to Frisian. There is a saying about it: "As milk is to cheese, are English and Frise."

Another version of this saying reads (in Frisian): "Bûter, brea, en griene tsiis; wa't dat net sizze kin, is gjin oprjochte Fries", which in English reads: "Butter, bread and green cheese, whoever can't say that is no real Frise". The saying plays on the sound differences between the Dutch and Frisian words for "butter, bread and green cheese", which in Frisian are pronounced almost identically to their English counterparts (showing the original closeness between the two languages), while in Dutch ("Boter, brood en groene kaas"), these words sound quite different.
Frisian cattle
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Frisian cattle

Friesland is mainly an agricultural province. The famous black and white Friesian cattle and the well known black Friesian horse originated here. Tourism, mainly on the lakes in the south west of the province, and on the islands in the Wadden Sea in the north, is an important source of income, too.

The province is also famous for its speed skaters, and also for the Elfstedentocht (Eleven cities tour), a 200 kilometres ice skating tour.

Another interesting feature are the many windmills. There are 195 windmills in the province of Friesland, from a total of about 1200 in the entire country.

Friesland was the first to acknowledge the independence of America's Thirteen Colonies from the United Kingdom.