After a comfortable night, we awoke to the shocking news from Nice. Only a couple of hours from home. It leaves one speechless and prone to despair about the state of the world, though the peacefulness of this idyllic spot does much to calm the spirit.
So we set off to explore Giethorn, knowing virtually nothing about it. Subsequent research reveals that it has a population of about 1,600, but attracts some 200,000 Chinese tourists each year, to say nothing of the rest of us. The Chinese enthusiasm for Giethorn helped it to secure a place in the Millennium edition of Monopoly, along with major world cities. Apparently the campaign went viral on the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, and locals voted up to 50 times a day for themselves.
There are dozens of little electric boats for hire by the hour, as well as bigger tour boats. We decided on the self-drive option:
The village is bisected by lots of little canals, and has plenty of thatched, 18th-century houses, mostly with well-tended and prolific gardens:
The canals are spanned by bridges, more than 180 in all:
Here we are out on the lake behind the village – more dramatic skies and a rather cool wind, but very pleasant:
Coming back in, we found one enthusiast had built himself a tree house:
There was also a working farm on the edge of the village, and one of the cows came down to the canal bank for a drink, but took objection to having her photo taken, and turned tail!
More houses and gardens:
When our time was up, we strode off, in the wrong direction, in search of a supermarket, which turned out to be only a short way from the boat hire place. After a good shop, it was back to the port for a well-earned refreshment. Though I forgot to mention, we did stop along the way in Giethorn for a bitterballen snack and a glass of something.
Altogether a very interesting and pleasant stop. Tomorrow we plan to head for Kampen, a Hanseatic city near the mouth of the Ijssel.
No comments:
Post a Comment