We arrive by boat in Maarsden

Writing from the town of Maarsden, a small and charming place. We arrived yesterday afternoon after boating for a couple of hours from the mooring just outside of Vinkeveen, where we'd gotten the boat and our training the day before. There are moorings all over the place, some with services, others without. 

I am going to backtrack and describe some of the other things we did in den Bosch, our first location, before hopefully catching up to where we are now, on our third day out from Vinkeveen.  

Between parade viewings, we visited several other local sites. First, the Bosch museum. Sadly, most of Bosch's original paintings are not in den Bosch or even in the Netherlands. His most famous work, the Garden of Earthly Delights, is in El Prado in Madrid. As are several other of his paintings. But this museum has high quality reproductions, in accurate size. In a way, it is better to be able to view all of them in one setting, even though they aren't the originals. There are some short films, other works inspired by Bosch, and a pretty amazing clock that operates once an hour. It's not old, created in 2010, with Bosch as inspiration. There are little figures that come out of a door in a procession, and then exit throught another door. Then other naked bodies emerge in a different space and dive into what seems to be the mouths of demons. Very Boschesque. The clock face has all kinds of dials and symbols to indicate night and days, the day of the year, astrological symbol, more. You can peer into the back of the clock to see the intricate gears and workings. 

We also went to visit Bosch's house, where he'd grown up, and took a self guided tour with video stations in each room. It's pretty small, and they only let a few people at a time, which was fine. I asked where the inhabitants had slept. The man answered that they don't know for sure, can only guess. There is an elevator which I took advantage of, because the steps are pretty steep. But I did walk down the staircase that was original and hence where Bosch himself had trod. There was one small alcove above the entryway that had two lifesize figures, and I guessed that was where some of the family, maybe the parents, had slept. One of thehistorical novels I've been reading that takes place in the 17th century, a little after Bosch's time, talks about box beds. I am guessing the ones at his house may be that. I'll have to check.

We left den Bosch for Vinkeveen by private car, about an hour's drive. Distances between places here are very short by car. But much longer by boat via the canals on the leisurely boat trip we are taking.