Language

                                                An easy sign to understand but not to say......
                                               brug is pronounced brerkh, with gutteral emphasis


We have given up trying to learn Dutch.  Everyone here speaks at least 2 languages, one of them usually English.  When a citizen of the Netherlands says they don't speak English, they mean that they are embarrassed because they aren't fluent; if they say they speak a little English, you'd better believe that they speak it better than you do.  

So we have no reason to learn Dutch beyond dank u wel or alstublieft or sorry or pardon or hello, and therefore, it remains a mystery to us.

Besides, we have come to the conclusion that the Dutch language was invented by someone with a wicked sense of humor.   There is a nice little town just north of us called Muiden.   Don't even think you know how to pronounce it......just rhyme it with chowder and you'll be right.  We don't get it either.

                                                                 Fietsen route to Muiden

Neither do we know how to make some of the sounds that are required when speaking Dutch, especially that gutteral, throaty roll.  Impossible.

So we will float through this country happily ignorant of the language used by some of the most accommodating people in the world.  Works for us.

                                                                  A Dutch Weather Stone
                                                                 Stone wet..............rain
                                                                 Stone dry...............sun
                                                                 Stone moving........wind
                                                                 Stone white..........snow
                                                                 Stone falls......hurricane 
                                                                                                   

Summer!

Hot is here. Cold used to be the order of the day but since summer solstice, June 21, our daily special here in Holland is warm, warmer and now hot.  We had been complaining that we couldn't get any work done to the outside of the boat because it was too cold, windy or rainy.  Now, of course, it's way too sunny and we would scorch our delicate skin working out there.

 Luckily, it's not too cold to use an old fashioned outdoor pissoir.  This one is charmingly set in the middle of a garden in Elburg,   Not only can you relieve that full feeling, you can also contemplate the beauty of the flowers while doing so.  Nifty!

 Entering downtown Elburg

The small figure on the left of the picture is an upright Dwight, concentrating on not going arse over teakettle while negotiating the uneven cobblestones of Elburg with his bicycle.  Bumpy or not, it was a sweetly scenic street even though the local bakery charged us three euros for three rather mediocre croissants.



 

Mechanical Riddles

Imagine you are slowly motoring down a Dutch canal and suddenly the inside of your boat begins to smell like the inside of a 10 day old cadaver that's been left in the sun.   Hummm, have you snagged a dead cow on your prop or does the dog have a horrendous case of gas? 

Oh, maybe it's neither; maybe your boat's batteries are frying and giving off explosive battery gas.  Nothing to worry about except, of course, money.  We all know what b-o-a-t stands for: Bring Over Another Thousand and in this case how true it is.  

The Noord-Willemskanaal

 One of the 7 million bridges on the Noord-Willemskanaal

but not the one that was broken and held us up for an hour.

 

More Charm Than a Dog Has Fleas

Once upon a time, about 800 years ago, a small part of Holland flooded putting an end to many goats.  The remnants of the victims, namely their horns, were found by the early human inhabitants of the area.  Being poetic and inventive people, they called their community Giethoorn, which in Dutch means goat horn.  Clever?

Must be because now thousands of tourists from all over the world come to this charming little town to ride in tour boats, paddle their own canoes or rent bicycles so they can oohh and aahh over the sights while imagining themselves living in a thatched roof house alongside a small canal without a road in sight. 

Beautiful Giethoorn

One of the tourist boats 

 No driveways, just bridges

 Lovely gardens

 Sheep, not goats now

Garbage collection in Giethoorn

Loaders on barges maintain the canals

Even the local marina has charm