Pictures of Giethoorn

Before they left for vacation, Josh and Adrie took us for a stroll in Giethoorn, a tiny village that Adrie has been visiting since childhood. The village was founded in 1230 by fugitives from “regions bordering the Mediterranean” who set about excavating local peat, creating lakes and canals and building houses on the resulting islands. These they connected with arched bridges, which they’re still doing today. The original settlers found many horns of wild goats, which historians say had probably died in 1170 during the St. Elizabeth’s flood. They called their town Goat Horn: Giethoorn. Learn more here.

Today, Giethoorn is visited by many travelers, but we were lucky, and in the drizzle we had the walkways and cafe practically to ourselves. Here are a few of our pictures from a rainy-day stroll in Geithoorn.