Giethoorn - paddling the canals

Today we took the 2 kayaks and canoe on a 5km paddle through old Giethoorn and out around the reed beds. We saw a man adding thatch to his roof and stopped in a canal-side paddock for lunch. There are plenty of phragmites paddocks, to grow 'thatch', as well as some with sheep and cattle. They seem to use the cattle to refresh the phragmites. I'm impressed with the shape of the thatched roofs - lower at the front and some with ceramic ridge capping.

We spent most of the afternoon with the kids working on their journals and relaxing. John went for a walk before it started to rain and I managed to get a couple of loads of washing through. It is quite nice here this evening watching the rain fall on the canal out the window of a thatched cottage. Back to Amsterdam tomorrow.

I've added  a few additional photos from our last day in Giethoorn.

Sophie in old Giethoorn

Will in old Giethoorn

Sophie in old Giethoorn

Lunch by kayak - cheese and salami rolls

Will finds the right turn in the canals

Sophie swaps into the canoe

Sophie with the water lillies

Cattle in the phragmites

Nearly back through the reeds to old Giethoorn

Picturesque paddle

Picturesque paddle

Picturesque paddle

Clogs on the wall of the boathouse

Back to our boathouse

Ducks and the house opposite

Vege garden across the canal for a nearby restaurant - fresh food!

Amazing thatch - a house with its own lake

Giethoorn - cycling

The taxi driver in from Amsterdam Centraal had been good to us, explaining local transport - so on Monday, instead of catching a train from RAI station back to Amsterdam Centraal, we caught the tram through the city. We planned our trip straight out to Giethoorn, with more time in Amsterdam on our way back through. To get to Giethoorn we caught a train to Zwolle then another to Steenwijk (Meppel), followed by a bus to Giethoorn (after a 3/4 hour wait). We had contacted our hosts the previous afternoon and they gave us great travel directions. With the long daylight hours we had time to look around the old part of Giethoorn (the north where we are staying) before having a very nice dinner at a restaurant nearby on a canal. We walked along the road to our cottage. Our hosts built their own house, which is surrounded by canals on all four sides and we suspect that they built our cottage too. They have bee hives, chooks, grow vegies and have lots of espaliered fruit trees - as well as sheds for restoring boats.

On Tuesday, after some duck feeding, I took the kids for a quick paddle along the canals behind our house. Then we hired bikes from our hosts (for 5 euro for a day) and went into Giethoorn, not only to buy some groceries, as we were almost out of food but also to have a look around. The central area was quite full of tourists, mostly taking motorised punts along the canals. We cycled home along the back lanes with bags full of groceries.We passed a lake. Many of the lakes were formed when the peat cutters lowered the land, followed by erosion - partly as water levels changed.

Inside our thatched cottage

Sophie and Will were happy to share their attic bedroom

Our deck on a canal

Will finds a football!

The old part of Giethoorn

Houses only accessible by boat or bike

Dessert on our first night in Giethoorn

Feeding the ducks

Beehives - our hosts gave us some of their honey

Paddling on the canal near our cottage

Watching a bridge open for canal boats

Learning about thatching with reeds in the museum

A sled in the museum

Traditional canal sail boat in the museum

Will gets a fright - toilet not vacant

Museum in Giethoorn

The museum is even on the canal

Sophie cycling along the canal in Giethoorn

Fire boat - important with thatched houses!

Sophie in Giethoorn

Sophie with tourist boats behind

Will with his bike in Giethoorn

The bottom of a windmill on our cycle home with groceries

A view out across a lake.

Boat full of thatching material

One of the many superb chook sheds

Cycling home

A quick afternoon paddle outside our cottage

One of our host's boats

Getting kayaks into the water at our cottage

Southampton to Amsterdam

We disembarked our Norway cruise on Saturday followed by a long wait for our included transfer, bus from the drop off spot to the rail line at Heathrow and train into London. I'm pleased that we decided to overnight in London as it made the days of travel much easier. We stayed near Angel Islington and I went for a wander that afternoon to collect some food and check the fastest walking track to St Pancras for the following day. We also organised some logistics, including a hire car refund and made the most of being back on wifi. We managed to find pizza for dinner cooked in a Sainsbury's supermarket while we waited.

On Sunday we started the new section of our European adventure by wheeling our bags down to St Pancras International for the Eurostar via Calais, to Brussels and on to Amsterdam. We had a half hour delay at Brussels which gave me time to get some euro out of an ATM (and yes, the police were carrying guns). The kids were amazed that we had come from Norway and then within a day travelled through France, Belgium and to The Netherlands.

We arrived into Amsterdam after 7pm so ended up catching a taxi to our hotel on the south side of the city. We couldn't find a supermarket nearby so had dinner at the hotel dining room.

We ventured into the P&O entertainment to watch Chris Hamilton

Passing a container ship in the night

Back in Southampton

View from our hotel in Angel Islington

Will manages to find something to do with sport at St Pancras

French countryside

Passing through Brussels with a delay

Dutch glasshouses

The Norweigan pack of cards have been worth their weight in gold

Sophie making a 'musicly' video on the train to Zwolle

Will with too much energy on the train to Zwolle

Sophie on the train to Zwolle