Shipshape again
“We love old things. New builds just aren’t for us.”
Boschpoort
Wieneke Wennekes and Levi de Hoogh live with their cat Marietje on a nearly 100-year-old tugboat.
Wieneke, 52, and Levi, 51, have called Maastricht home for a year now. Their houseboat is moored in the Zuid-Willemsvaart, in the Boschpoort district. They lived in Brabant before moving here. After spending a year apart, they decided it was time for a fresh start somewhere new. They chose Maastricht, where Wieneke’s sisters live. They found the boat through Marktplaats, a Dutch online marketplace.
“It’s wonderful here,” says Wieneke, who works as an embalmer. “I can walk to the city centre in 15 minutes, but it still feels like I’m in the middle of nature. There are lots of animals here, including swans, kingfishers and otters. We’ve named some of them: Reinier the heron, Ali the cormorant, Ria the falcon and Benny the beaver. When we head out in the canoe or take the motorboat, Benny sometimes swims along with us for a bit. I won’t dip so much as a toe in the water myself, though: there are catfish here up to 2.2 metres long. They look like sharks!”
This past summer they got to know their fellow boat dwellers. “Really nice, open people,” says Levi. “A few boats down, there’s a singer who hosts house concerts. There’s also an old brothel boat from Utrecht that now houses students. In winter, when everyone stays indoors, it does get a bit too quiet for me and I start to miss my friends back in Brabant. That’s why I want to start volunteering at Muziekgieterij.”
An old railway line runs along the Jaagpad towards Belgium. It used to be part of a smuggling route, and around the turn of the century, the area struggled with prostitution and drug dealing. It’s been cleaned up and improved since then. These days it’s peaceful, but still a bit rough. “You have to be into that sort of thing if you live here,” says Levi. “We’d never go for a new-build. I’m a restoration carpenter; I love old things and can’t sit still. Give me a good project and I’m happy.”
The boat is filled with flea market finds.
View the photos below
