March 27, 2009: Cows in Boats

[glatt]

I checked it out on Google Earth, and it really is served mostly only by canals. There are roads that will take you to large parking lots within walking distance of the village, but the canals attached to a nearby lake are what go right up to each property. Pretty cool.

[sandypossum]

Originally Posted by glatt

I checked it out on Google Earth, and it really is served mostly only by canals. There are roads that will take you to large parking lots within walking distance of the village, but the canals attached to a nearby lake are what go right up to each property. Pretty cool.

We went to Giethoorn a few times while we lived in the Netherlands. It's a popular day trip for the Dutch. You can hire little electric motor driven boats - they were called "whisper boats" as I recall, because they were almost silent. Clever Dutchies: no pollution from engines, no noise pollution in the cutesy village, and they only went at a leisurely speed, so no waves or hooning. You could also hire row boats. There is a lake on the edge of the village, and you could go out into that as well, and in the middle was an island with a cafe on it.

The Dutch are obsessive about cycling, so the village has cycle paths nowadays, but no cars. Makes for a pleasant and serene day out.