Giethoorn – Venice of The Netherlands

A beautiful Village easily reachable by Train or Bus from Amsterdam

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Sometimes we learn something new about ourselves, something we did not know before. If it was not for my trip to Giethoorn (Netherlands) I would have never known that I am not so good at rowing a boat for instance!!

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Giethoorn is a small town in the Netherlands and can be easily reached by train and bus. Well whenever they are not striking that is, which they were when I came to the Netherlands.

It was quite easy to take a train to be fair but taking the bus? A bit more difficult. Luckily my Chinese friend convinced the Chinese speaking woman at the bus ticket counter not on strike to organize a bus ride for us.

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Other tourists began protesting as well so the woman had to call someone. Long story short… A bus came and we did not even have to pay for it. The bus driver said it was his form of protesting against the Dutch Government. Why? Sincerely I do not even know but he let us ride for free so I did not feel like asking too many questions.

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Giethoorn is a wonderful place, though. Do you like fairytales, do you like the Hobbit, do you like feeling being in Venice but in a much cozier, less touristy and probably also really, really tidy version of it?

Then Giethoorn is the right place for you! All the houses look very neat and very cute, so cute that sometimes it feels rather unreal. The whole town can easily be explored on foot or in boats since locals are offering boat rentals to tourists.

There is also a seashell museum you can visit for free in the village which we did. I have never seen so many seashells in one place. My 10-year-old self who was obsessed about seashells would have been over the moon. My 24-year-old self was quite amazed as well to be honest. So many seashells in all colours!

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Anyways, Giethoorn is a wonderful place. We rented a boat and all I can tell you that it was a good idea. Seeing the Venice of the Netherlands by boat is a must when visiting Giethoorn! It is so peaceful traversing the town by boat. Everything looks green and cute and even the people are very relaxed there Well they have to since a ton of tourists are taking tons of pictures of their houses every day.

Time really seems to have stopped there and I am sure that even highly pressured managers would benefit from visiting Giethoorn by boat and that says a lot about the place!

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It was really fun in the boat. Until we got lost. To be fair it was mostly due to our lack of orientation than to the complexity of the canal system of Giethoorn. After some time, we were back on track again though and it was just a blast after that!

Overall it was a good trip. Nobody fell into the water and nobody’s phone or camera either. Now, that’s what I call a success!

What else is there to say? Oh yes. Go visit Giethoorn! You won’t regret it.

We have visited Giethoorn when we lived in Holland many years ago. 

However, it is my dear friend Nathalie Gschließer   who shared this post in her own words. She visited Giethoorn a few weeks ago with her friends.   Thank you Nathalie for Sharing your Experience of  Giethoorn and the beautiful pictures. You have inspired us to visit again!!

Nathalie speaks many European languages, loves to travel and cooking is her Hobby.   Hey, Nathalie, you should visit India sometime and learn a few Indian languages and try some Indian cooking . And lots of beautiful places in India to write about too!!

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