Budget Venice: Dutch - Githorn

The settlement they founded in 1291 was called Geytenhoren. In fact, having nothing to do with goats or goat horns, it got its name from the coastline, the spit, where the first ships of the settlers docked.

The name of the Dutch village Giethoorn in Russian sounds like Hithorn (Githorn). The goat horn is pronounced in Dutch as Heiten horn, and the name of the village of Hithorn came from the word hoorn, which used to denote a piece of land - an island that literally jumped out of the water.

This is what rural life of the beginning of 1900 looked like. Houses, canals, boats almost did not change, only one generation was replaced by another, now grandchildren cut the dark water of canals on modern low-speed motors.

A typical boat for these places is a punter (punt), driven by a pole - boom, because the village canals were shallow, not more than 70 cm in depth. Punt boats, like water striders gliding through dark water, left only thin lines of tracks.

On these boats, they not only fished, swam through the village canals for shopping, but with virtuoso ease transported milk, livestock and horses.

In winter, when the canals were shackled with hard ice, milk cans and necessary products from local shops were delivered on skates and sledges.

Hithorn was and is a favorite holiday destination of the Dutch. In 1900, an article about an unusual village was published in the magazine De Aarde en haar volken. He reinforced his interest in Hithorn and the visit of the Queen of the Netherlands. After all, the royal family will not go wherever they fall. The north-eastern part of the Netherlands has a fairly close relationship with the royal houses, including the House of Oran. Starting from the 7th century, the kings of Friesland (King Radbod), staffhalters (Georg Schenk van Tatenburg) and blood relatives of the bishop from the Utrecht episcopate had their fortresses and hunting grounds in this area.

The proof will be the visit of Queen Wilhelmina with her husband, Prince Hendrick on May 27, 1921.

Hithorn became a popular tourist destination in the late 19th - early 20th century. This can be found in advertising cards of the time. 1910 Cafe 't Wapen van Giethoorn Garage L. Prinsen cafe ad

Reverse side of a 1910 advertising card. By reading the ads, we can be sure that the last 117 years have been renting boats for canal walks in Hithorn!

The central channel, proudly called the Binnenpad (Inner Path), there is also the Cornelius Canal, the canal of the road to the Mill, Church Street, High Field Street.

A well-preserved to this day peasant house with a subsidiary farm, a stable for sheep, outbuildings in the backyard.

Compare, time has no power over Hithorn. House at 16 Binnenpad in the first half of the 20th century ...

… and now. Only the reed roof remains unchanged. It seems to me, or in our time, the house looks bigger. Do you agree?

River routes are designed in such a way that all the village canals smoothly lead your boat towards the de Wieden Nature Reserve, which is a semi-flooded meadows and peat bogs located between lakes formed after peat extraction in this area. Any hunter will envy the number of animals flying up from the bushes. We counted about 10 wild waterfowl species: river gulls, wild mallard ducks, swans, loons, dives, lapwings, crested blacken, we even saw golden eagles on the hunt.

The reserve stretches for many kilometers between Hithorn and Steinwijk. Almost Claude Monet and his famous paintings "Water Lilies" period work in Giverny. This beauty can be written endlessly.

The sweet, delicate smell of water lilies for an instant returns to barefoot childhood, when my friends and I collected snow-white flowers with long, elastic stems into various bouquets and carried them home in the evening.

It was wonderful Dutch weather. The sun shone brightly and baked against the backdrop of picturesquely running curly clouds, but suddenly a cold wind blew.

The sky is clouded over by unknown clouds of lead clouds spilling on us with an oblique wall of short spring rain.

But literally 10 minutes later, someone upstairs turned off a cold water tap, deciding we had enough tests for today, the spring sun came out again, a warm, gentle breeze blew out to dry wet clothes, and people on boats around began to swim out under the coastal bushes, suspension bridges and lay down their multi-colored umbrellas at the bottom of the boats.

Having made a big circle, we returned to the village, but a surprise awaited us on the way to the external village canal. Do you think traffic jams are only on the roads? You are mistaken, look at what rush hour looks like on the streets of Hithorn. Do you want to experience a battering ram on your own boat or amicably get an iron edging of the bow of the boat on the head?

An unforgettable experience, be sure to go after them to the Dutch Venice. At least you will not only be able to get memorable injuries, but also try to ram a boat of your choice on your own.

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