[712] That Houseboat in Amsterdam

For the final leg of our European vacation, my folks, their friends, and myself spent two or three (or more?) nights in Amsterdam. We stayed in a houseboat located near the Science Center Nemo and Amsterdam Centraal train station. 

I'm pretty sure the houseboat is the one I marked above.

View of the houseboat from one of the water buses we rode.

Our tiny, humble, but very homey houseboat. The big building behind it is the Science Center Nemo.

The houseboat was the moored beside one or two other houseboats. You had to cross them to gain access to the main entrance located on the left side of the boat, beside the water. Now imagine us arriving on the first day carrying really heavy suitcases. And we did that too on the last day. I was really worried either the luggage I was hauling would fall into the water or I would. On the roof was a picnic table.

The houseboat was pretty small, but very cozy. Upon entering you would be at the main hall with the kitchen, dining area, and living area. Turn right and you'll see the bathroom entrance.

The common area. The left door leads to the bathroom, the right is the main entrance.

View of the main hall from the bathroom.

Our neighboring houseboat (for rent also) and the view from a kitchen window.

The bathroom, as seen from the master's bedroom.

Go past the bathroom through another door and you would be transported to the master's bedroom. Here you had to sleep in a nice little nook. It really gave you the feeling of sleeping in a houseboat.

Sleeping area of the master's bedroom. I REALLY wanted to sleep here.

On the other side of the houseboat was the other bedroom. This looked more like your regular bedroom. And of course, just outside this other bedroom was my sleeping area.

The sleeping area of the regular bedroom.

The morning after my first night.

Outside there were plenty of birds you could feed if you wanted, ranging from ducks, swans, and seagulls. Pigeons were also present. It won't take a genius to figure out my folks and I spent time feeding them and relaxing.

There were also plenty of other houseboats of various designs around the area. Some of them were for rent, like the one we stayed in, and the others were most likely homes of some residents.

Standing on the roof. A giant floating Chinese restaurant behind me.

The picnic table, and behind it to the left, the entrance to our houseboat.

How was it sleeping in a houseboat? Relaxing, to be honest. Being on the water meant the weather was pretty cold and breezy. The way the boat rocked with the waves was also pretty calming, and helped put me to sleep at night.

Unfortunately my body would be feeling like I was still on the houseboat even though I was already on solid ground. I would get phantom sensations in my body that the ground wasn't stable. This was a very small issue that really didn't bother me.

We had to cross two other houseboats to get to the dock.

I'm guessing if you read my three posts about the major places we stayed at you would see that my favorite place was the apartment in Paris, followed by this houseboat, and finally that apartment in Rome. We did stay for a few nights in a hotel in Florence, and we also spent a night or two in a bed and breakfast in Venice. None of those two places made as much of an impact on me as these three, though.

I hope you enjoyed reading about my memories of places I stayed at. Hopefully I'll have more travels in the future I can blog about.

Out.