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