When you first see the images, you are totally convinced this cannot exist on the face of the Earth. The first impression that strikes you is that a pastoral landscape has just descended from a fairy book, with the colors and shapes so naturally combined and outlined they seem drawn on a piece of paper. In reality, what you see below is a small town in Northern Holland, Giethoorn, built upon a network of narrow canals.<\/p>\n
Giethoorn, a town with a population of only 2,600, is the kind of picturesque, tranquil village most people can only dream of. Even its website says that “the loudest sound you can normally hear is the quacking of a duck or the noise made by other birds”, no wonder people flock here to find the ultimate tranquility.<\/p>\n
The postman delivers mail by means of a punt \u2013 a traditional flat-bottomed square-cut boat), steering along the canals which here and there intersect in natural crossroads. Wooden bridges span the canals all along while there is one or two boats moored near every house, just like cars are parked on driveways or along the street in the classic towns. The town is nicknamed \u201cThe Dutch Venice\u201d, but locals say this may give a false impression of size and crowds and commercialism in a small settlement wrapped in a total tranquility.<\/p>\n
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