Giethoorn

When you are in a place as remote as Wanneperveen, you MUST relax and be active at the same time, how? Read on!

Despite of the rain that bound us at home the first day, we got our bikes out again and drove off to Giethoorn. This time it was even more deserted than the day before, good for us 🙂 As you might have noticed in my previous blog post, I’m quite enthusiastic about Giethoorn. Why? because it is such a cute little village. The small pathways along the water are regularly interrupted by even smaller bridges. The other things that make Giethoorn so attractive are her houses, they are built in such an other style than the ‘common’ houses in the Netherlands. And last but not least, the tourists… A while ago, Giethoorn was described in a popular Japanese travel guide as one of the most representative cities of the Netherlands. This was taken over by other travel guides resulting in Giethoorn becoming one of the most popular cities in the eyes of the Asian travellers. However it’s funny to see all those tourists wandering around Giethoorn, you’ll have the constant feeling you’re being photographed. Smile!

After visiting Giethoorn once more, we cycled on through the cornfields (man, they have A LOT of corn over there) to Meppel and without notice, we crossed the ‘border’ to Drenthe, leaving Overijssel (that sounds a lot cooler than it is). Meppel definitely is worth it visiting. It isn’t very impressive and it’s not much different than every other village in Drenthe, but as soon as you enter you notice something’s different. We smelled some kind of tomato soup/cheese bread smell which our Meppel-knower told us was typical for Meppel. And the atmosphere seemed to be different, cosy. A little recommendation, well, actually two: you should definitely visit the local bakery, just because they serve simple but delicious lunches. Also, you should visit the ice cream shop (across the corner), it’s called ‘IJsmakers’ (‘ice cream producers’). They don’t offer a whole lot of choices, but whoa, the tastes they offer are soooo good and creamy! (try tony chocoloney-salted caramel)