Jaap van 't Veen's photos with the keyword: gemeente De Friese Meren

A map of Sloten - one of the Eleven Frisian towns - from 1523 shows a windmill in its present location for the first time. Windmill De Kaai was built in 1755 and is the successor to the earlier standerd mill that stood on this spot. For many years it was known as De Korenmolen (The Corn Mill). It was given its ‘new’ name in 2006, derived from its position by the Lemster Poort - one of the two water gates in Sloten; where it stands on a bastion of the city wall. De Kaai is a smock mill on a brick base with a thatched smock and cap. Its stage is 3.40 meters above ground level. The mill is winded by tailpole and winch. The sails have a span of 18.10 meters. De Kaai still grinds wheat into flour in the traditional and authentic manner. On Saturdays, the mill is open for viewing and flour sales. The mill is listed as a Dutch national heritage site.

The Oudemirdumerklif is a nature reserve in Gaasterland , a hilly region in the southwest of the Dutch province of Friesland . Gaasterland derives its name from the word gaast , which refers to the sandy heights formed here during the last two ice ages The Oudemirdumerklif - one of the three cliffs in this region - is a remnant of a glacier tongue from the “Saale ice age”, between 200.000 and about 120.000 years ago. During this ice age, moraines of boulder clay, a tough loamy mass with scattered larger stones and gravel, were formed. The cliffs in Gaasterland were created because erosion took place where the waves of the former Zuiderzee reached these boulder mounds. Wave erosion swept away boulder clay at the bottom of the cliff. Because of the constant crumbling under the influence of the sea, the slopes remained bare before the Zuiderzee was closed off in 1932. After the Zuiderzee became IJsselmeer , the water level remained constant. The steep sides became more slanted due to crumbling and erosion by water. Due to the saturation of the water, the cliff - with a height of about 6 meters - and the beach became overgrown with trees, bushes and plants. Because of the salt which remained in the soil, salt-loving plants continue to grow there to this day. Because of its scientific value, the Oudemirdumerklif was one of the first acquisitions of Natuurmonumenten (a Dutch society for nature conservation) in the 1920s. You can reach the Oudemirdumerklif via the Minne Minnespad .There you walk between so-called garden walls: walls of stacked grass sod meant to keep the cattle in the meadow. These walls are unique in the world, as there are only two other locations in the Netherlands.

Search and find the benches !! Elfbergen is with 175 hectares the largest forest in Gaasterland. It is one of the forests that Esq Van Swinderen has laid out in the 19th century. The forest has coniferous and broad-leaved types of wood of all ages. In 1925 it came into possession of the municipality of Gaasterland, who sold it in 1976 to Staatsbosbeheer (a Dutch government organisation for forestry and the management of nature reserves). During the crisis years of the 20th century, a labour camp for young unemployed people called Werkkamp Elfbergen was established on this site. The large pond in Elfbergen with a wooden bridge was one of the works these young people carried out between 1935 and 1937. It took a total of 9,000 man-days to excavate the pond. The pond is 110 meters long and 45 meters wide, with a narrowing in the middle over which a bridge has been built.

The first mention of a church in Lemmer dates back to the 13th century. The foundation stone of the current Tsjerke oan it Dok (Church at the Harbour) was laid more than 300 years ago. According to the numerical wall anchors on the tower, the church was built in 1716. In 1759 the church was enlarged with a transept on the north side. The tower of he curch is half-embedded. The people of Lemmer call the tower of this church the Lemster toer (the Lemster tower>. If they can see it from a distance, they know they are (almost) home again. The original tower clock from 1598 was removed by order of the German occupiers during the World War II and has not been returned. After the liberation, the Tsjerke oan it Dok received a new clock. A memorial stone was unveiled after the war in the facade above the tower entrance, in memory of the approximately 50 war victims from Lemmer. Unfortunately, the church – as so often in the Netherlands – was not open to visitors, so I was not able to admire the interior.