Tour de Pays-Bas Day 7: Assen to Giethoorn
We’re up bright and early in Assen and enjoy a lovely complimentary breakfast buffet at the hotel. Less lovely is witnessing one shameless hotel guest load their plate with an enormous stack of bread and proceed to make sandwiches for at least three lunches. Way to keep that Dutch stereotype of being cheap alive and well!
If our experience of Assen was somewhat limited the previous day, our morning bike ride is a huge improvement – it actually feels like something out of a Disney movie! As we head south out of the city, we pass by De Hertenkamp, a park full of fallow deer with beautiful speckled coats. While it’s hard to tear ourselves away and hop back on our bikes, our route out of town reveals more natural splendor with a tour through the Asserbos, a gorgeous forest park full of hiking and cycling trails through the trees. Wish we could stop off here longer to explore as well, but it’s a good 60 km to today’s final destination: Giethoorn.
Assen - Giethoorn: 60 km
Google Maps time: 3 hours and 6 minutes Our time: 4 hours and 52 minutes (includes several stops)
Remember that big rainstorm the previous evening, when we were cozily ensconced at De Koppelpaarden? As we bike through Beilen, the next town south of Assen, we witness the dramatic aftermath: a number of trees violently struck down from lightning in a park. We actually see three huge trees in near proximity that have been split and fallen all close to one another. (They say lightning doesn’t strike twice but it appears as though it can strike three times in close proximity?) One fallen trunk is blocking the bike path and we have to dismount to get by. The town’s locals are all out surveying the damage and, while it thankfully doesn’t seem like anyone was hurt, the severity of the storm was certainly much more intense than we imagined when we were marvelling at the downpour the night before.
It seems as though Beilen is the most affected by the storm as we don’t see any further damage along the way. The storm spared the beautiful dense forest of the lush (and hard to pronounce) Dwingelderveld National Park. It’s here that we have another unexpected Disney-like animal encounter: cows! OK, maybe it’s more Kelly Reichardt than Disney, but what’s exciting is how close they are – unfenced and coming right at us! It’s a bit unnerving, but also a really unique experience to see them up close in the middle of the woods!
The ride through Dwingelderveld National Park is one of Alison’s favourite parts of the trip so far. It’s shady, cool and breezy (but not tegenwind breezy, fortunately!). The trees smell amazing and it makes for much easier breathing than the heavy humid ride yesterday. And the lovely dedicated bike path takes us past meadows, fields and lakes.
After Dwingelderveld, we cross the border from the province of Drenthe into Overijssel. The lovely routes continue on our way to Giethoorn as we bike through vast farmer’s fields under huge skies. And the Disney-like animals continue as well as we pass a little farm where we have to stop to snap a photo of these curious little goats.
Giethoorn is a tremendously popular tourist attraction, sometimes called “the Venice of the Netherlands” (although there’s at least one other town we’ve visited that also makes this claim). And truthfully, it’s not normally the kind of place we would make a point of going to. But a community situated along canals with all the homes connected by bridges and boats that’s also apparently car-free? That’s a bit too hard to pass up. And given that it’s pretty on brand with our trip’s objectives (wait, what are those again?) and that it’s en route to tomorrow’s stop in Zwolle, we thought it was time to pay Giethoorn a visit. In fact, the day before we left Toronto to set out on this trip, a super-friendly customer buying fries from us at the Danny Loves Music festival told us that she’d just been to Giethoorn and it was beautiful, if very busy. (Her exact words were “I want to move there, and also never go again.” Wise words, as we’d learn!)
For a supposedly car-free place, our entrance into Giethoorn is a bit disappointing, traffic-wise. We’re biking on a shared road and a huge tractor bullies its way ahead of us, almost edging us off the road. Frustrated, we hang back and wait for a break in the traffic. Fortunately, a bike-only lane begins again shortly after, which takes us the rest of the way into Giethoorn proper.
Our enthusiastic fry customer didn’t lie – Giethoorn IS extremely picturesque. But it is also packed with tourists. The canals are so full of rental boats (seriously, every business in this town also doubles as a boat rental place) that there are traffic jams in the water. The narrow walkways alongside the canals are also jam-packed with people brandishing selfie sticks, trying to manoeuvre the angle of their photos so it looks like they have this fairy-tale-like town to themselves. After a few minutes of navigating the crowds we need a drink!
At Cafe Fanfare (named for an old Dutch film set in Giethoorn) we settle in by the window and order a shot of Berenburg, an herbal liqueur originally from Friesland (yes, we should have enjoyed this tasty beverage in its home province, but we were so frazzled on our night in Leeuwarden that we forgot!). In any case, it does the job and we enjoy a lovely view and brief respite from the selfie-taking tourists outside.
While we’re very taken with the many charms of Giethoorn, we know we’ll be able to experience it a little better (and saner) if we make the trek back early the next morning. What we’re actually far more excited about is spending the rest of this day at our accommodation for the night: Bed on a Boat!
This unique private boathouse is located a bit outside the main town and, given the crowds, we’re so glad it is! We’re thrilled to have a quiet cozy evening overlooking the harbour from our little deck. Not to mention the opportunity to cook our very own dinner for a night! (Is it weird that a night of home cooking is a major highlight of our trip so far? Eating out is of course a huge treat, but after a while, you’re thrilled at the prospect of making for yourself. Even if it is something as simple as a spaghetti bolognese.)
We set ourselves up on the deck and tuck into some snacks and open a bottle of Prosecco and enjoy what is arguably our most relaxing night of the trip in what is arguably the least relaxing destination we visit (kidding. It’s hardly that hectic here once the tour buses head back). The sun starts to set and the water is at a beautiful calm. As we hear the boathouse very gently move to the gentle movements of the water, Justin is reminded of his childhood days at his opa and oma’s summerhouse in Breukelen and naturally talks Alison’s ear off about it. But it’s a beautiful night and one we’ll always treasure.
A big thanks to Bed on a Boat hosts Marco and Marjolein for making us feel so welcome and sharing their Giethoorn stories with us. Little did we know, their generous hospitality would provide a very unique experience of this charming village the next morning.
WHAT WE MISSED: The Hunebeds
Drenthe is home to many dolmens, or hunebeds, which are prehistoric tombstones built by early humans with boulders that were transported to the area during the Ice Age. In our initial planning, we fully intended to include at least one of these ancient sites on our bike route, but once the realities of the weather and Alison’s unexpected fatigue after riding into Assen, unfortunately the closest by sites were still a little too out of the way. But we loved biking through Drenthe, and will definitely be back (and we’ll make a priority of visiting these cool old rocks next time). Apparently within Drenthe there are several dozen within a 30 km radius, which sounds like an amazing day of cycling!
LEARN FROM THE AMATEURS: As has become very apparent (and you’ve probably been saying yourself with every entry we’ve posted … hell, we even have a What We Missed section!): it’s well worth it to spend two nights in each destination you’re visiting! Especially if you’re attempting to write a travel diary! These things take time! And you’ll be tired when you get in and want to decompress! … And if decompressing means having a couple vasjes (half pints) of beer, you’re also not going to really be up for much further exploring or writing afterward! And we knew this a bit from the start. Our Tour de Pays-Bas was about seeing how much we could see and how much ground in the Netherlands we could cover in a certain amount of time. And we’re glad we did it that way. But we were often surprised with how much more of a city we took in the following day after a night’s rest and waking up with more attentive eyes, keen to soak up the local sites and culture. With every destination we’ve visited, we want to go back to see more. And that’s not a bad thing, given that we are frequent visitors to the Netherlands anyway. But if you’re planning a bike trip of your own, best to schedule two nights per destination to fully appreciate it.