{"id":10316,"date":"2016-10-12T19:41:13","date_gmt":"2016-10-12T11:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/?p=10316"},"modified":"2016-10-12T19:46:37","modified_gmt":"2016-10-12T11:46:37","slug":"giethoorn-venice-of-the-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/?p=10316","title":{"rendered":"Giethoorn, Venice of the North"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you search Wikipedia for \u00a0Venice of the\u00a0North<\/a>, you will see that\u00a0quite a few towns in various countries are so nicknamed.\u00a0In my opinion Amsterdam really deserves that title, with its numerous canals and about 1500 bridges.\u00a0But Giethoorn\u00a0is also sometimes called the Small Venice of the North<\/a>. \u00a0It is a village in the Dutch province of Overijssel. In the map of Holland I have indicated the location.<\/p>\n

\"nederland-001\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Giethoorn<\/a> is a tourist attraction, especially popular with Chineset tourists. I had been there once, many years ago, it was Aric who had read about it and was interested to visit it. We went by public transport, first by train, then by bus. Giethoorn is located in what was in earlier times a peat swamp. What remains are lakes and many canals, used in the past to transport the peat. In the map below I have shown the route we have walked. Cars can not enter this part of the village, you have to walk or rent a boat.<\/p>\n

\"map-giethoorn\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We were advised at the tourist office to walk. Most (mainly Chinese) tourists\u00a0rent a punt.<\/a>\u00a0In\u00a0the past you needed a pole to move it (not easy), now they are provided with a silent electric motor and called “whisper boats” \ud83d\ude42 Restaurant menus and the timetable for the bus were available in Chinese.<\/p>\n

\"2016-09-031\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"2016-09-30-12-17-59-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When you reach the foot\/bicycle path, you feel like entering a different world. Thatched houses, many on their private island, only reachable by wooden bridges. We were lucky to visit Giethoorn off-season, it was relatively quiet.<\/p>\n

\"2016-09-30-12-23-13-1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here a collection of pictures, it is difficult to stop taking photos. Click to enlarge<\/p>\n\n\t\t