De Alde Feanen National Park

De Alde Feanen lies in the low, wet middle of Friesland, twenty-five square kilometres of marsh, peat lake, reed bed, wet meadow and swamp woodland that became the country’s twentieth national park in 2006. It Fryske Gea has held the land since 1934. More than five hundred higher plants grow here, including sedges and orchids, and over a hundred bird species breed. White storks are the emblem: tall poles have been raised for their nests, and there is a breeding station, It Eibertshiem, at Earnewâld beside the visitor centre. Old windmills stand out over the reed, among them the eighteenth-century spinnenkopmolen De Ikkers.