Sea Legs and Beer in the XXX City

Walking by moored boats at many of the cities we’ve visited always makes me wonder what it would be like to live, floating in the middle of an urban environment. Places like Vancouver or Seattle embrace the life but Amsterdam, sitting on average 4 m below sea level with 333 km of canals, has mastered the art of living on the water.

On our last visit to the XXX city, we decided to live like locals and rented a birth on a large canal boat moored very close to the new library and the central train station. The captain and owner said that since we had opted for the very least expensive birth that we had ended up with the smallest of all the rooms. In fact, this birth was so small that we had to unpack our backpacks in the common space and load them into our bunks.

The room was as long as a single bunk bed with a foot of space between it and the bathroom wall/coat rack behind which was a “shoilet” (a toilet/shower combo) and a teacup sink taking up the rest of the space at the head of the bed.

All loaded, with us and our packs, it felt like being locked in the trunk of a car during the summer, so we grabbed our day bag and went ashore to explore Amsterdam. Much later that night, after a full day of running around town, indulging in the pleasures it has to offer, we headed back towards the boat.

An impromptu pub crawl developed on our way across town with incredible downpours of rain forcing us to retreat to whatever bar we could pile into before getting soaked.

After the third deluge, it was getting late but we were having fun and not too eager to go and cram ourselves below deck (especially with a belly full of beer and a head full of new ideas). So, slightly damp, we made our way back to a crusty old pub I wanted to visit and slipped in one more before bed.

 

Now quite late, we made our way back towards the boat in the misting rain.  Virtually alone on the streets and huddled under a borrowed umbrella we laughed about “ …how our room is so small that you have to go outside to change your mind”.

 

Stepping aboard we were quickly reminded that we weren’t wearing our sea legs but our beer legs, which compounded the anxiety of sleeping in a horizontal broom closet. With cirque du soleil like precision, we changed out of our wet clothes and slipped into our bunks.  At the foot of Nat’s top bunk was our porthole window and looking out at the city across the night time reflections of the water, we fell back and let the gentle rock of the old boat put us to sleep.

 

Early the next morning we awoke to the sounds of the rest of the six or seven passengers around the breakfast table, smearing toast with jam and fixing up coffees. Coffee in hand, it was some fresh air we craved, so we went topside to enjoy the city waking up in the morning sun.

Sitting comfortably on deck, quietly listening to the sounds of the city and watching the boats cruise passed we could see the appeal of urban seamanship and both agreed that this was the most unusual local living that we had likely experienced.

 

Amsterdam is an incredible city and one of our favourites! No matter where you stay, this city has tons of things to see and do with an amazing pub scene and great food.