Omvallen van verbazing in Gaasterlân-Sleat
On reconnaissance with Mayor Hoornstra and Councillor Jelsma
Flabbergasted in Gaasterlân-Sleat
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| Every summer, grandfather and grandmother De Jong from Kampen travel with their grandchildren to Sloten and Gaasterlân for a day. They love Sloten. Click on photo to enlarge |
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| Even Young people find Sloten, purportedly the smallest town in the world, incredible. The sea scouts from Zwolle enthusiastically told the municipal executive about their experiences with their yellow-black sailing dinghies on the Frisian lakes. Click on photo to enlarge |
BALK (NL) – Mayor Willem Hoornstra and Councillor Meint Jelsma of Gaasterlân-Sleat are born entertainers and they are proud of their municipality. Wherever we go in the municipality with this duo, the mood improves instantly. They would be excellent hotel managers. Or managers of a pub serving food at the Luts.
It is not that the recreation entrepreneurs and tourists we encounter do not take them seriously. On the contrary, the well-groomed gentlemen in striking good suits are encouraged to continue preserving all those cosy villages, the little town of Sloten, and the “Limburg” landscape. And let’s not forget the outdoor cafés! Everywhere they go, people want to talk to them. Barriers in Gaasterlân are quite low.
Tourist minded
Mr. Hoornstra and Mr. Jelsma are – together with Councillor Willem Sprik – the treasurers of the municipality. Yet, in this article, they are also the waiters serving up new plans. The former’s portfolio entails economic affairs, recreation, and tourism. Land use development and planning, nature, and landscape are a few matters that are the responsibility of Mr. Jelsma. Obviously, they have additional tasks, but both deem accommodating and entertaining guests, domestic or from abroad, to be very important. A little chat here and there provides them with valuable information. “As hosts, we obviously would like to know the wishes of visitors to our municipality. We are currently researching this, but a personal conversation is just as valuable.”
Zuidwest-Fryslân National Landscape Visitor Centre
Gaasterlân-Sleat is a unique part of the Zuidwest-Fryslân National Landscape. The landscape of push moraines was created 130,000 years BC, in the next-to-last ice age. Over the centuries, Friesland has changed dramatically. The North Sea and the Zuiderzee flooded the mainly flat province, not yet protected by dikes, but Gaasterlân remained high and dry due to the viscous non-water-permeable glacial till. The “steenkist” (stone chest), a prehistoric burial site in the Rijster forest near Rijs, is one of the proofs that Gaasterlân was a safe place to live, an island with a solid foundation in a river delta, already more than 3,000 years BC.
“Our municipality believes that the visitor centre of the Zuidwest-Fryslân National Landscape would best be situated at the Wyldemerk in Harich, possibly with a tower that looks out over the very varied landscape. In view of our experience with the current visitor centre for Zuidwest-Fryslân, Mar en Klif, the willingness to invest a lot of money in the centre, and the presence of all types of landscapes in the immediate vicinity of Gaasterlân, we think that we offer the most attractive site for a visitor centre.”
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| Mayor Willem Hoornstra and Councillor Meint Jelsma are delighted with the arrival in Balk of the cruise ship Gaasterland. 60 years ago, the ship transported people and freight between Balk and Sneek. In 2009, Arnold Hylkema and Marjolein van Tienhoven, who converted the ship to a luxury nostalgic liner and party vessel, resumed that tradition. Click on photo to enlarge |
In the Stêdhûs Sleat museum, you can see how Sloten looked in the 17th century, with its Gaaster or Wijckeler gate and the drawbridge, elements that will return during the implementation of the Master Plan “Sloten, the ideal town”. Click on photo to enlarge |
A little round of “slooping”
A National Landscape lives and thus changes. The quality of the landscape can be improved through changes, if you manage and coordinate those changes. The municipal executive wants to refine the network of waterways and connect it to the dense network of bicycle paths and beautiful forests.
“We want to make Gaasterlân more attractive for boaters making cruises by upgrading the access channels to Oudemirdum and Rijs and by creating landing facilities. In this manner, we will make existing recreational facilities, such as an amusement park for young children in Oudemirdum, more accessible for boaters. We want to make sloop boating more attractive by improving the Luts, which links the Sleattemer Mar with the forests at Oudemirdum, and by excavating a new waterway between Balk and Elahuizen at the Fluessen. Once that is completed, you will be able to make a tour by sloop. This will revive Elahuizen. In our vision, Balk will become the centre for water sports, a base of operations where you can spend the night and shop. A lock with a high-quality hotel is slated to be built on the Luts, near Harcos Watersport and the plant for water treatment equipment, Spaans Babcock. Its realisation is realistic, albeit that the execution will take a number of years.”
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| Mother Bep and son Jan Heikamp from Veenendaal can hardly believe that parking in and around the shopping and entertainment district of Balk is free. Click on photo to enlarge |
The ideal town
The municipal executive believes that Sloten should become an even more historical town than it presently is. The moat must be made navigable and the original town gate rebuilt. Sloten, a leading place of interest in the series of the Frisian eleven cities, appears to have a need for additional landings and improvements to the existing marina.
The little town has a lot of potential as far as cultural history is concerned. Even during the tour through the fortified town with Mayor Hoornstra and Councillor Jelsma, it appears that tourists are very impressed by the medieval structure, the seventeenth century buildings, the fortifications, and its unassuming size.
“We want to restore the old town limits, and rebuild the town gate and the draw bridge. A historically responsible reconstruction must enable Sloten to profile itself better as a medieval town of significance. This would be achieved based on the Master Plan “Sloten, the ideal town”, on which a local workgroup is currently working.”
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| Both Mayor Hoornstra and Councillor Jelsma agree that Balk is an exceptional site in Friesland. It has many fun and modern shops, the outdoor cafés at the Luts River are just as cosy as those at the city canals of Utrecht, and the scenery consists mostly of monumental buildings. The town’s sense of nostalgia, the romantic atmosphere, and the old-fashioned hospitality of the residents of Balk are experienced by the holidaymakers as a reward for their desire for a location where you can de-stress without abandoning modern conveniences. Click on photo to enlarge |
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A merger of high points
In the coming years, tourists in Gaasterlân-Sleat can count on even more cultural history, improved accommodations and landing facilities, and even better bicycle paths and network of waterways. Tourism is an important source of income for the municipality, which is one of the oldest recreation communities of the Netherlands. In 2012 or 2013, the municipality will possibly merge with Skarsterlân (Joure) and Lemsterland (Lemmer), neighbouring municipalities where recreation and tourism are also an integral part. “Just like in our case, they are working on optimising services for tourists. In the future, we will collectively form a beautiful tourist municipality with all the bells and whistles. A municipality that encompasses the majority of the Frisian lakes and an unequalled variety of landscapes within its borders. It is almost unbelievable what you can do here and even at a high level. Canoeing, bicycling, kite surfing, motor boating, sailing on large and small boats, horseback riding, golfing, hiking through the woods or along the cliff coast, and absorbing art and culture. At the culinary level, our region also delivers well. The three municipalities in the south of Friesland are becoming a high point in Europe.”
