We spent Friday night on the botelboat in Maastricht which is permanently tied up in the very centre of the city – on the Maas River. The BotelBoat is a quite inexpensive (cheap) Bed & breakfast. We arrived around 5pm and it was snowing lightly and very very cold.
We found our way to our double cabin on the main deck with ease – it was number 30. It was so very cold so we turned on the gas heating full blast.
This cabin contained a very nearly double bed and a shower and toilet. The only chair was in the tiny wardrobe. We had to fold up the chair to enable us to put our back pack and bag into the wardrobe as well. When we undressed and dressed the plastic rubbish bin was on the bed along side the person who was not undressing or dressing. There was not enough space for 2 people to be dressing and undressing at the same time.
We have stayed in the very modern designer Eden Hotel in Maastricht as well and thought we would try something completely different. This hotel had less clothes hanging space than the tiny cabin on the boat but it did have enough room for us each to get dressed and undressed at the same time, and it was warm.
Then we went out to purchase gloves for JJ, dinner, gluhwein and so on. Several times we worried (I worried) that we should go back to the boat and turn the heating down, but decided (we decided) to wait till we got back rather than risk the walk to the boat twice in the slippery snow and ice which was formed on the footpaths.
The room was not hot when we returned.
That should have warned us – but we went to bed, me in thermals, socks, 2 merino singlet top things and JJ in his PJ’s and socks and we huddled and we froze, and we laughed and laughed. When one moved the other also had to move because there was not enough space in the bed to move out of sync with each other. As you get older it is important to move in bed or else you cannot move the old bones in the morning. In this place we could have been frozen solid had we not moved in the night. Someone in another cabin who was not having a good time – banged on walls. Can you believe that – no sense of humour.
In the morning early dim dim light we discovered that there was ice on the window – so we couldn’t see out, and then we discovered that the ice was on the inside of the window.!%*&^%$#@! seems there was a gap in the window edge.
No wonder we were frozen and didn’t really sleep all that well.
But we got up – we certainly didn’t shower – too risky taking anything off to go into the shower – we just added more clothes and went to breakfast, then we packed our things and went out into cold morning of Maastricht.
Remember that we did laugh and laugh, and we are planning a return trip just not in the middle of winter next time, as it really was fun.
We were in Maastricht for a steam train ride to a Christmas Market in the Velvet Caves in Valkenburg. It was absolutely worth the night on the Botelboat.
Tags: botelboat, maastricht, snow
[...] Now Best Beloved had discovered the balls of Maastricht, well he had eventually noticed the balls on one of his many trips there, as you may remember there has been lots of ball talk in our house of recent times. So the balls drifted to the surface one day and he remembered to tell me there are many such balls in Maastricht and Maastricht is very very cold. Have a look here for a story about a very cold Maastricht [...]
[...] Have a look here for a story about a very cold Maastricht [...]
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by ConnieJohnston expat, ConnieLene Johnston. ConnieLene Johnston said: http://www.oldfartexpats.com/i.....aastricht/ – story added last year – finally added the photos today [...]