GIETHOORN

MONDAY 11^th

We left the campsite around 10.00 and drove in to the village for some food items from the Coop, then headed off for 46 miles to Giethoorn. We had been told about this “Little Venice” as the Dutch call it, by a couple back at Alkmaar and it sounded as if it would be worth a visit. It was a terribly windy drive again, may be something to do with the landscape, and as the roads are not very wide it was most uncomfortable every time a lorry passed us. Anyway Silly Emily found the way across the country, over a canal where we had to wait for the bridge to be lifted and safely to Camperplaats Hamstede.

Crossing the canal to the camperplaats

After lunch we walked along to cross the bridge to find our way in to the village, picked up some leaflets from Tourist Info, found the boat trips place and also hundreds of Japanese with their inevitable cameras. Then it came over very black so we scurried back to base just before the rains came again. In the evening we had thunder and lightning and horrendous downpours, we are once more surrounded by a lake.

TUESDAY 12^th

Luckily it was sunny again when we got up although still quite windy. It is about a 15 minute walk up the road alongside a wider canal, over the bridge in to the centre. We first came to a museum called ‘t Oude Maat Hus, which roughly translates as Old Maat’s House, one of the original farmhouses. Very well-preserved both inside and outside where they showed the old reed-cutting equipment and boats that transported both livestock and reeds along the small canals. Giethoorn gets it’s name from all the goats that were kept here (Goat’s Horns) and once was only accessible by water. It is a maze of little canals with wooden bridges going over to each house with their thatched roofs, all very pretty and extremely well-kept. No need for any licks of paint here. We wandered, and wandered some more until about 1.00 when lunch called, so sat for about 1 hour with a very nice meal, then wandered some more. All the time dodging the Japanese with their cameras. We had to laugh as the females posed in all sorts of strange places, one even laid across a table waving a Dutch flag, whilst their male counterparts clicked madly away. There are some times when I would like to see Facebook ‘cos I am sure they will all be on there tomorrow. We got back around 4.00pm a bit footsore and weary but having had a really interesting day.

WEDNESDAY 13^th

When we awoke it was grey and gloomy, wind howling and rain sounding like god throwing pebbles on the roof…in other words a “stay snuggling in bed” kind of day, so we did. We had thought of going to the village and having a boat ride around the canals but quickly gave that idea a miss. So here I am catching up on the blog and photos again. Tomorrow we plan to drive on down towards Delft or Alblasserdam with a stop somewhere on the way.