Fohr Island is a tiny island off the coast of Germany and Denmark. It’s only 7 miles across but it’s an entire universe with beautiful, thatched roof homes and tiny villages, sandy beaches and it’s the home of Hinrichsen’s Frisian Whisky, made by hand on the Hinrichsen family farm.
I spent a wonderful month living on the farm and exploring the island on a bicycle. It’s truly one of the most delightful places on Earth.
Every month, there is a performance of traditional Frisian dancing at a hall in the village of Dagebull, a short ride from the farm. The dancers hand-sew their own dresses, which can take months. The dresses are decorated with handmade silver bells from an artisan in Portugal and can cost thousands.
The dance is traditionally only women, owing to the fact that for much of Fohr’s history, many of the men were gone on whaling or merchant ships or working in the United States, so the women stayed on the island, running the farms and raising the children.
So the dances didn’t have men, they were gone!
To see this living history be performed was pretty magical. And of course, as happens at every special occasion on Fohr, there were Manhattan cocktails being served for the guests.
I miss Fohr Island and the wonderful people I got to know.
“Another beautiful day in paradise!”
