We put this on the map about a year ago – not long before we started travelling. It’s considered the Venice of the Netherlands, but that is not fair at all – Giethoorn is a town built around one main canal, but the houses are large and are set on large plots which are exquisitely manicured. So, all the gardens are spotless and all of them gracefully curve down to the canal. Every house a chocolate box, every garden a botanical masterpiece. Okay, that may be overdoing it, but it’s stupendously beautiful.
The few pictures we took won’t do this wonderful town justice. It’s a small place, so it would be hard to justify a holiday just to visit Giethoorn, but try to fit it in if you are in the area. Hint: It gets bloody busy – find a quiet day!
We had an afternoon stroll on the day we arrived. The next day, we cycled over to the quieter sister town and explored that. Then we came back to Giethoorn for lunch. The plan was to have a small lunch then cycle along the canal for a few KM each way. That was the plan. We picked a posh restaurant, saw the menu and realised that the day was done. We went for a tapas menu, but stupidly we went for the ‘large’ rather than the medium platter. Luckily there were some fearless sparrows to help us out. As you can imagine from the photos, we were utterly stuffed, and it was a very slow ride back to the mothership after a great big blowout. Luckily we were paid up at the campsite for another night!
The next day and it was a late start over to out last stop in The Netherlands, just a sparrows fart from the German border.
