Houseboat Museum

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  • Mar-Oct: Tue-Sun 11:00 - 15:00 , Nov - Feb: Fri - Sun 11:00 - 17:00

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Lonely Planet review

This quirky museum, a 23m-long sailing barge from 1914, offers a good sense of how gezellig (cosy) life can be on the water. The actual displays are minimal, but you can watch a slide show of houseboats pretty and ghastly, and inspect the sleeping, living, cooking and dining quarters with all mod cons. In case you were wondering, houseboat toilets used to drain directly into the canals, but now most have sewage hook-ups.

The sailing barge (23m long and 4m wide) was built in 1914, and even if nobody lives here any more the museum's interior epitomises the Dutch term gezelligheid (closeness). By the way, in case you were wondering, houseboat toilets, until this century, could drain directly into the canals, but they now must hook up to the city sewage system. Look for it opposite No 296 Prinsengracht.