I’ve boarded
some pretty
out-there
Amsterdam
vessels in my
time.
The mighty municipal dredger that
fishes thousands of rusty bikes from the canals each year,
with its enormous fairground claw; the waterborne gay
hostel – nice cupcakes, boys – and the ever-delightful
Pussy Boat, a floating cat sanctuary (obviously).
So, as the fourth bottle of red did the rounds at a
Saturday-night dinner with mates, I became quite
vocally blasé about the excursion that awaited me
the following morning – jumping into a canoe for an
‘
urban safari’ led by banker-turned-adventurer Coen
Van Den Akker. I’m partial to a cheeky lunchtime
pedalo on the canals during the summer months –
what could be so different?
Answer: the weather. It’s spring, but Jack (Jaap?) Frost
hasn’t received the memo and is hanging around for old
times’ sake. As I bike over to the wind-buffeted Eastern
Docklands on Sunday morning, it strikes me that
Amsterdammers will not be hitting the water in their
droves today – and with good reason. The temperature is
positively Siberian and my eyes are watering – whether
from the biting cold, my aggressive hangover, self-pity or
some combination of the three, I’m not sure.
Coen – who splits his time between running central
Amsterdam’s only canoe-excursion company, Sees City
Survival (
seescitysurvival.nl
),
and cleaning the houses
of old-aged pensioners – has already sent me a text
message saying, “The wind will be our dearest friend
today.” It’s followed by a winking emoticon that I can
only interpret as meaning “prepare for frostbite”.
Life has been sweet for the former banker, ever since
he gave up the pinstripes and power play of the financial
district and moved into a houseboat in the former
shipbuilding nexus of Amsterdam. Throughout the
Dutch Golden Age of the 17th century, the boat played
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