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Anyone spending more than an hour in the idyllic town of Ohrid, on the lake of the same name, cannot escape the Dutchman A. den Doolaard, pseudonym of Cornelis ‘Bob’ Spoelstra. The centuries-old northern Macedonian town is home to a monument to this writer-adventurer and even a museum in a particularly central location. Or rather a memorial room with photos and dozens of books in almost as many languages.

In the first decades after the war, Den Doolaard, who died in Hoenderloo twenty-five years ago, also enjoyed great fame in the Netherlands. Through his work as an announcer for Radio Oranje, the London-based resistance station, but also through the novels he wrote during his wanderings around the world in the years before the war. One particularly popular novel, Inn with the Horseshoe (a thin one) is set in Albania. Another hit, Wedding of the Seven Gypsies (also no brick) is set just across that country’s border, in Ohrid.

Taken from our blog: hello-macedonia.eu