"Nature is very nice -- not too many people, but they are very nice and helpful," Knoechel said.

During four visits he has picked up all kinds of promotional material from the Visitors Centre to take back to his native Germany.

This visit, Knoechel brought his father-in-law, Berndt Matschewsky, to the NWT for a three week-canoe trip out to Baker Island on the North Arm of Great Slave Lake.

Both are from Nurnberg, a city of 500,000 located 160 kilometres north of Munich.

The duo left Con docks July 2 and paddled out the North Arm for 25 kilometres and camped in two locations over a three-week period. They used a canoe they shipped from Germany that disassembles down to a small package only a metre high.

"They were loaded up with barely enough room for their legs in the canoe," said Kurt Lehniger, who put the men up at his Yellowknife home.

"They were loaded down like an aircraft carrier."

Knoechel said they saw wild animals including a moose and a family of otters while paddling.

For Matschewsky, it was the first time he ever saw a moose. "It was kind of like an elk in Germany," he said, "only smaller."

As fishing enthusiasts, they both claim that fishing on Great Slave Lake isn't even comparable to fishing in Germany.

"The thrill of fishing -- not to have to wait for three hours for a little bite," said Matschewsky. In Germany , he pointed out, "it's pretty hard to get a fish. There's pollution and too many people."

Lehniger, who immigrated to Yellowknife from Germany in 1967, said that having the tourists stay at his home is a wonderful thing for the city.

"I think it's a great thing to put Yellowknife on the road map," he said. "More tourists from Germany are coming. It's good for Yellowknife and it's good for the NWT."

Knoechel and Matschewsky left to return to Germany on Thursday, but do plan on making another trip here sometime in the future.