Inchie Friesland

Not really a country,

but many of the Frisians who live there, feel like it is a separate country ;-)

We have our own language, it's the second language of the Netherlands!

Friesland is the northwest province of the Netherlands.

Friesland or Fryslân as we call it here, is my "Heitelân" (= Vaderland = native country),

so I thought it was fitting to choose it as the last country of this year!

Jolande and I hope you enjoyed our trip around the world

and it would be great if you would join us again in 2019!

365 days complete, 365 new days to go!

May you have a wonderful New Year!

Inchie Sweden

For this inchie I took one of my own pictures of the statue of Astrid Lindgren in Stockholm.

I really like it that behind the statue is a painting of her most famous creation: Pippi Longstocking.

Margriet and I wish you all

a wonderful Christmas.

Inchie Poland

I've never been to Poland

and I don't know a lot about the country.

But I hope to go there someday

and the one place I really want to visit is Auschwitz.

Inchie Montenegro

When we made a trip around the Adriatic Sea we also visited Montenegro.

We really enjoyed our time there and we even swam in the Bay of Kotor.

This picture I found in a flight magazine and it reminded me of that time.

Inchie Chile

I don't know much about Chile,

but the first thing I thought about was a chili pepper!

Chili peppers have been a part of the human diet

in the Americas since at least 7500 BCE.

The most recent research shows that chili peppers were domesticated

more than 6,000 years ago in Mexico,

and were one of the first self-pollinating crops cultivated in Mexico,

Central America, and parts of South America.

The name of the plant is almost certainly unrelated to that of Chile, the country,

which has an uncertain etymology perhaps relating to local place names.