Saturday, 10-Sep-11 10:37:00 CEST

House boats at Naarden Vesting

When painting at the Castle of Muderslot the lady I met there had been talking about that it was nice to paint at Naarden Vesting as well. I had to try that. I went to Naarden Vesting and the great improvement this time was that I brought a trolley! I don´t want to look like a bag lady when painting outdoors but the alternative to a trolley is to carry all the equipment and it is awfully heavy.

Parking was free. Walking was included. Oh well I had my trolley and the weather was nice so this was going to be a really good painting. I inspected Naarden Vesting. The city Naarden is built inside a fortress. The shape of the city is like a star or a circle with arrows pointing outwards. I went to the Fortress museum and tried to find a nice view of anything specific Naarden that interested me that day.

After some walking in the Fortress museum I decided to search elsewhere. I walked outside to find out if the fortress looked nice from the outside. I passed a petting zoo and still there was nothing that interested me.

There is an outer less fortified dike and canal construction around the city. In the outer canal there are some house boats. Houseboats are interesting things. How is it possible to build complete two story houses floating on water? You also see house boats made with bricks as well. Outside the boats there is often a garden at the shore and parking for a car. The extra things is depending on the situation. In Amsterdam it is maybe not possible to have a parking as well and a garden. We don´t have so much houseboats in Sweden. When I was standing there contemplating about the houseboats I came to the conclusion that this subject was interesting enough to make a painting. No fortress for me but houseboats. I literally turned my back to this fortress unique for its kind from 1350 and started to concentrate on house boats.

Just outside the view that I was painting there were kids playing with a speed boat in the water. How posh is that? If I had a speed boat would I let any kid play with it? It was quite powerful as well. I just wonder how it feels to be a houseboat owner when the neighbor’s kids are playing with an over 100 HP boat outside. The kids were dragging around each other on a surfboard with a rope. The kids were balancing on the surfboard, they were laughing and jumping from the boat. The boat was starting and stopping and making circles. The kids were screaming and there was a dog as well and it was barking. This playing went on and on and on. How is it in the houses? Are you gently swinging along and having an equally good time?