Left Amsterdam early and headed out to the typical-dutch village of Broek in Waterland which was only 15 minutes from Amsterdam in the middle of vast green fields and canals. Hard to believe that such a rural and remote area exists so close to the capital. A beautiful, perfectly manicured dutch village.
We then headed to a nice cappuccino and apple pie breakfast at a farmhouse/restaurant in the middle of the fields just outside Broek. We sat on the lawn and watch families load up on little boats and go for rides in the canals.
We then crossed the famous Aisleitdijk dam (32km long!) on our way to Harlingen. This was one of the most interesting parts of the day. Learning about what it took in the 1920s and 1930's to protect Holland from floods and to reclaim vast portions of land was very interesting. You could see that the ocean was way higher on one side of the damn and the lake way lower on the other side. The problem is that all of The Netherlands seems to be on the low side. Ani interesting and risky situation in my view.
Harlingen is a beautiful town by the sea with lots of ships, and canals, and restaurants, and tourists. But Giethoorn was definitely the quaintest village we visited today. It reminded me of "It's a small world" in Disneyland. Lots of narrow canals, lots of little quiet boats full of people strolling around, cafes lining up all the little canals, souvenir shops here and there. And the weather was just perfect!
As we drove around the different parts of the country today, I realized that all of Holland is truly below sea level. My GPS fluctuated from +1 to -15 meters all day. This seems precarious to me as a country. All protected by one big dam?!?
Made it to Zwolle for the night. Tomorrow we head to the Eifel Mountains for some twsities and to Bonn for the night. Back to Germany.
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