Anyone who has seen the photos of Geithoorn, quickly surcomes to the appeal of a town without roads. Ahh, perception.
Just 2 nights allocated to get a brief experience of this unique town.
I choose an AirBNB right in the village, and the delightful host even collected me from the train station, in her car. We drove in and up to her home, which faced a small canal, home to a couple of lovely swans. Ok, yes, a car, road, & garage at a nice modern home.
A short walk over a small bridge, turned left and made my way to the main canal, where the perception became the reality. Various boats making their way from their home to the village. Some loaded with groceries etc.
I walked the canal edges and bridges for a while, getting a feel for this unique town, looking at restaurant menus along the way for dinner, and with a little rain and zero degrees, decided to make an early night of it.
The AirBNB loft room had a very nice view out of the small canal, and I awoke to that canal being frozen over, and grassy sections beyond, quite covered in frost.
At breakfast, I was suggested a boat trip operator in the main village, how also did boat hires for self-driving, so not wanting to injure myself on ice, I ventured out about lunchtime when paths had thawed, with the view to do the guided tour first, then hire a boat to explore a bit more personally.
The boat tour meandered through the village explaining Geithoorn’s own popularity had created a monster. Summer traffic jams, on the water. So much for not having roads. They explained during summer, people can take hours to get short distances on the water.
The tour emerged out of the canals to a large lake area, with a couple of islands used for recreation, and having navigated the lake and re-entered the canals, saw the beginning of an ice float between the reeds. I later discovered, that ice was enough to stop self-hire boats from being let out. So that was about the ability to experience Geithoorn.
Not quite a village without roads. Narrow canals that logistically create traffic problems in the busy months, and merchants who don’t take credit cards other than Maestro. Ummm.
My AirBnB host was the highlight of this side trip.
