Day 83

I looked back at Earl and asked, "A week from today, what will we be doing?"

"Not this," he replied, as he steered the boat around a bend.

"This" was driving a boat through a canal town in the Netherlands named Giethoorn. Earl discovered this unique town on the internet, a town where you park your car on the outskirts and boat or walk everywhere you need to go.  Best of all, from a visitor standpoint (I like to call myself a "visitor" instead of "tourist"), you can rent a boat to get around town.

After Earl drove 1.5 hours to get to this town, it was decided it was only fair for him to drive the boat and me to enjoy the scenery.

The canals around town are shady and the homes were beautiful. Being in the cool shade with the water lapping around the boat -- heaven!  Nearly all the boats have electric motors so it's very quiet.

No cars anywhere in this town ... just sidewalks and canals ... and walkers, boaters, and bicyclers.

You could boat to restaurants (below) ...

... stores ... and even church (below).

Surprise! The canals are fed by a nice lake (below) and we spent some time out there ...

And just as I was getting hot and thirsty ... is this a mirage (below)?

No, indeed! It was a boat selling snacks and cold drinks. My cap'n expertly pulled alongside it and purchased some cold ones for us (below). How fun!

After boating around Giethoorn, we returned our boat and walked around for awhile, including going over bridges that we had boated under.

It was such a nice day it was easy to talk The Mister into a selfie!

On the drive home, we stopped at a lock on a canal named Zwolsevaart. I didn't really understand how locks worked and wanted to see one. Professor Jones was telling me all about it, when a boat pulled in and we saw the lock in action, just as Earl had described.

Big boat pulls in (below) through open doors that lead to the lock. At the other end of the lock are closed doors going to a lake that's much higher than the water level on the canal.

Doors to the canal shut behind the boat which is now close to the bottom of the lock (below).

The lock fills with water (below) to bring the boat up to the level of the lake it wants to enter. Up, up, up, the boat comes! 

Doors to the lake open and the boat pulls out of the lock (below), even with the lake level.

Doors close again to wait for next boat.

Another tidbit #1:  I saw one Dutch windmill today but we drove by so quickly I couldn't get a photo of it. I drew it instead (below).

Just teasing. That's not my drawing -- it's from Google Images.

Regrettably, the only windmills we're seeing are HUNDREDS of these (below). Yes, I know they're good for the environment but I want Holland windmills.I think I finally came to this part of the world about three decades too late.

Another tidbit #2: 

Our Hilton hotel in Leiden is right next door to Corpus, a museum all about the human body. I'm glad our window does not look out over this "statue"!

From what I see on the internet (below), I think the inside of the museum may be even scarier!

I'm teasing. Corpus does look interesting ... but there's no time. No time for hardly anything else. Tomorrow (Tuesday) we go to Amsterdam for the day ... and Wednesday we board our plane.

What will be doing next week at this time?  Reality is crashing in!

Here's hoping one of you can come up with a better idea for me!

Thanks for reading my blog.

Jane