Hot Water Bottles and Houseboats, Amsterdam

My Mother and Step-Father recently made the decision to visit our new floating home while Amsterdam was in the grip of its second cold snap of the year.  Gone were the usual trivialities based around visiting parents such as, what to feed them, where to take them, and how to kill every bit of time they were with us. These minor questions were replaced by the genuine concern:  “how do we keep them warm, and prevent pneumonia?” (Apparently the older you get, the more susceptible you become.... sorry Mum).

A peaceful idyll houseboat living may be. Waking up to crested Grebes diving in tandem pairs for breakfast, effervescent Coots chirping morning greetings to Moorhens, and aloof Swans silently preening and pouting on the mirror like canal, is certainly more of a privilege than witnessing the ordinary groanings of a city rising from its slumber. But make no mistake, these beautiful water based morning shows are best observed from a cocoon shaped, duvet and electric blanket based nest of your own. After the shows finale, usually consisting of a seagull squawk-scrapping with a fat mallard, comes the realisation that one of you must now leave the safety of your bed shaped nest and light the gas fire. If alone there is no debate. But alone or not it must be done. If not, you’ll freeze.

Keep the fire ON!

Land-Lubbers; those who have chosen to live within the more common brick and mortar based dwellings, may often look at houseboats with a pang of lust in the summer months, but it is fair to say that during the winter, this green-eyed appreciation of another’s home can often be reversed. Houseboats are drastically affected by the environment in which they float. When surrounded by cold water and cold air, they too are very cold. When hosting others as guests on a houseboat it is very easy to worry that they, who have not adjusted as you the Ship’s captain have, will suffer from a winter chill.

Despite the above, every visitor so far to our impromptu bird hide has appreciated the cosy romance brought about by the need to light the gas fire and cuddle up with a hot water bottle in the winter evenings. And mornings.  Living on a houseboat is colder than living in the houses that line the rippling green waterways. It does take a lot more effort and energy to keep warm in winter in a dwelling without central heating, in an abode wrapped in nature’s natural refrigeration system. But the necessity of enjoying battling the need to leave a cosy bed, the ritual of lighting the fire in the morning at the same time as flicking the switch on the kettle, and the shivering hop-step-jump to and from the shower, are part of what make living on a houseboat so special.

Breakfast View

Morning Visitor

My parents did not end up with pneumonia. They too revelled in the dance of the ducks in the morning, and cheerfully appreciated the simple joys of hot drinks by a toasty fire in the evenings. The night may look cold and dark outside as the canal laps just below the windows, but with a little bit of enjoyable effort, you’ll be warm and cosy on board... Until the morning dash to the fire again that is.