AMSTERDAM
Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands,
is known as the “Venice of the North” and
is famous for the many houseboats found
along its canals it even has the Houseboat
Museum, an old boat called the “Hendrika
Maria”. Built in 1914 and renovated into a
house-boat in the ‘60s.
The most sought after location for houseboating is The Prinsengracht part of the
17th Century built canal district, which
since 2010 has held its place on the
UNECSO Cultural Heritage list.
In the old days living on a houseboat
meant you were poor. Nowadays
Amsterdam houseboats are extremely
popular and only for the happy few with
money. Houseboats in Amsterdam are
generally not motorized, but moored to a
fixed spot in the city.
There are two kinds: a house built on a
floating pontoon made of concrete. We
call this a modern ark. Of the older and
probably more charming kind are the old
metal ships that have been transformed
into a houseboat, these are called
‘living ships’.
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