Experience the best of Leeuwarden

Leeuwarden, or Ljouwert in Frisian, is the capital of Friesland, the province in the north of the Netherlands with its own language and traditions. Canals ring the old centre, where brick merchants' houses and narrow streets surround the Oldehove, a church tower begun in 1529 that was never finished and leans noticeably.

The Fries Museum tells the history of Friesland and honours Mata Hari, the dancer and spy, who was born in Leeuwarden in 1876, and the Princessehof is a museum of ceramics in a former noble house. The graphic artist M. C. Escher was born in the town in 1898. To the north the Wadden Sea, a UNESCO-listed tidal flat, and islands such as Terschelling, Vlieland and Ameland are reached from Harlingen and Holwerd, and Franeker has an 18th-century planetarium built by Eise Eisinga.

Fryske sûkerbôle, a loaf studded with sugar lumps, Friese nagelkaas, a cheese spiced with cloves, and Beerenburg, a herbal bitter, are local tastes. The land is flat and the skies are wide. The Elfstedentocht, a skating race of 200 kilometres across frozen canals, starts and ends in Leeuwarden, and is a cherished memory of cold winters.