Jul 23, 2026
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Discover Your Limburg Roots
Uncover ancestral stories through archives and heritage sites across the Netherlands’ most characterful southern province.
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Love Netherlands
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Dear Netherlands,
The Dutch have a word — gezellig — that doesn’t translate. It’s the feeling of a candle on a wet Tuesday. It’s a bar full of people who’ve known each other since school. It’s the brown café where the owner remembers your order and the rain outside makes the windows glow. You can’t chase it. You can only notice when it finds you.
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Photo via Love Netherlands
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In today’s email:
- Tracing Your Family in Limburg: A Heritage Travel Plan
- At The Café — Café De Klomp — The Oldest Café in Friesland
- Around The Web — Breda, Netherlands: The Complete Visitor’s Guide (2026), Tracing Your Family in Gelderland: A Heritage Travel Plan, Haarlem Day Trip from Amsterdam: The Complete 2026 Guide + more
- From Love Netherlands — Tracing Your Family in North Brabant: A Heritage Travel Plan
- Dutch Food You Will Love — Hutspot — The Dutch Mash With a Siege Story
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Tracing Your Family in Limburg: A Heritage Travel Plan
👉 Read the full story
Your grandmother called it Limburg. She said the food was better there, the people warmer, and the churches older than anywhere else in the Netherlands. She was right about all three. Limburg is the southernmost province of the Netherlands — a narrow strip of land squeezed between Belgium and Germany, shaped by rivers, castles, and a culture that feels entirely its own. If your family came from Limburg, tracing them means stepping into one of the richest and most distinct heritage landscapes in the whole country. This guide is for anyone planning a heritage trip to Limburg — whether your ancestors came from Maastricht, Venlo, Heerlen, Roermond, or one of the province’s small farming villages along the River Maas. It covers where to find the records, which sites carry the deepest connection to the past, and how to structure four days that will bring your family history to life. Why…
👉 Read the full story
Have you been there? Do you have a memory of this corner of the Netherlands? Hit reply and tell us — we’d love to hear your story.
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At The Café
Café De Klomp — The Oldest Café in Friesland
Café De Klomp in Leeuwarden’s old centre has been pouring beer since 1620, making it Friesland’s oldest continuously running pub. The room is small and dark with wooden tables polished by four centuries of elbows. Frisian is spoken behind the bar and at half the tables — a separate language, not a Dutch dialect. Order a glass of Beerenburg, the local herb-infused jenever, and listen to a Saturday afternoon unfold around you in a language most Dutch people don’t speak either.
👉 Visit the café
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Around The Web
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From Love Netherlands
Your grandfather talked about the village back home. He said the family name came from somewhere in the south — a place called Brabant. He described clay soil, church bells, and long rows of farmland stretching to a flat horizon. North Brabant is the Catholic heart of the Netherlands. It sits in the south of the country, bordering Belgium. For centuries, it was different from the Protestant north. The people were farmers, weavers, and craftsmen.…
👉 Read the full story
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Photo via Love Netherlands
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Dutch Food You Will Love
Hutspot — The Dutch Mash With a Siege Story
Hutspot is a thick mash of potatoes, carrots, and onions, served alongside klapstuk (slow-cooked beef brisket) or smoked sausage. The story is that the Dutch found a pot of it abandoned by Spanish soldiers fleeing Leiden in 1574 — the city had been under siege so long they’d been eating it themselves to survive. Every 3 October, Leiden still serves hutspot for free at its annual Ontzet festival. It’s the kind of plate that looks unassuming and tastes like centuries of practical Dutch winter cooking — sweet, savoury, and made for a long evening.
👉 Read the full story
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