Storybook Town
the storybook town of giethoorn was on the top of our list of places to visit in holland. it was a bit of a drive from wassenaar, where my family lives, but it was a beautiful drive through the countryside! i had seen photos like this of giethoorn and was hoping we wouldn’t be too early for all of the blooms! well…we were too early for most of them and it was pretty much the only day on our whole trip that we had rainy (seattle) weather. so we weren’t exactly prepared for the cold weather (hence my skirt) but the rain stopped soon into the day. but it made for some pretty cool misty/moody photos! we didn’t know this beforehand, but the netherlands has weather very similar to seattle! it’s rainy most of the winter and doesn’t get too hot in the summer, so we felt right at home ;) i’m just glad we got warm weather on the rest of our trip :)
anyway, giethoorn is a town that feels right out of a fairy tale! all of the cottages have thatched roofs and there are only waterways instead of roads! it’s surrounded by swampland and lakes so renting a little boat is a must! well, we didn’t rent a boat because of the weather, but we did a little boat “tour” instead. since it was raining and cold when we arrived, we wanted to get a covered and warm tour of the town. before we walked around. it was kind of hilarious because they promised it would be in english, but the guide said everything in dutch first, then maybe 1/4 of it in english haha! and when he spoke in english, it was almost impossible to understand him! so it was a bit of a rip off but the rain stopped by the time we were done so it all worked out!
our first stop after the boat tour was a little food at a cute cafe. i got liege waffles and we all shared fries with joppiesaus which was an amazing discovery and i crave it everyday! walking around the town was a dream. it was still off season so there weren’t a lot of people there which made for a nice and chill day. something i kept saying on our whole trip was “i want to live there!” and those thatched cottages really tugged at my heart! most houses even had their own bridge leading to the front door! it would be so dreamy to live in this quaint little town! i also loved all of the cute little pottery shops throughout the town! there were also a lot of ducks, swans, and cats that let you come right up to them! however, a swan almost bit me because it thought i had food haha!
even though the weather wasn’t ideal, we were so glad we took the trip to giethoorn and we will definitely go back next time! enjoy more photos below!
^^^loved this halloween-esque witch’s cottage! ;)
^^^a fun thing about the netherlands (and probably all of europe) is that houses have names! we noticed a lot of houses with names on the exterior which was so cute!
^^^swans are everywhere in the netherlands! we saw a ton on this day trip out in the country.
