Believe me, my young friend.

I am sure I have quoted this before – it’s my favourite quote. But here I go again:

Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.

It’s from the famous children’s book The Wind in the Willows, and it’s true. Water, if you are not afraid of it, and if it is not coming at you in the shape of a torrential downpour, tsunami, or masssive flood, is good for the heart and soul. Especially the oceans, but a river will also do the trick at times.

Yesterday, we headed out to Roermond in the Netherlands. The small tourist town is located where the rivers Roer and Maas join, resulting in plenty of different bodies of water: Small lakes and canals everywhere, with lots of eateries overlooking them in some places, lined with grassy banks, camp sites or busy promenades in others. Our friend Wolfgang and his partner have an old house boat in one of the countless marinas, and had invited us to cake, coffee and a little turn on the water.

Their boat, the Paddington, has a steel hull, a diesel engine with a strong personality, and wooden superstructures. It’s officially a motor yacht, but it doesn’t have quite the same vibe as the kind of motor yacht you’re probably imagining now: It’s not one of the huge, white, flashy plastic boats anchored off the shoreline of Monaco, where supermodels show off their tans to the millionaire owners. It’s more the kind of boat where you can actually imagine a well-mannered bear from Peru enjoying his marmelade sandwich.

Roermond is only an hour’s drive away from Cologne, but once you enter the marina, it’s like stepping into another world,. We watched the docked boats gently rock by the pier, listened to the sound of water splashing under the hull as we cruised lazily along the river, and felt the wind and sun on our skin, and when we stepped back onto dry land, the Best Husband in the World and I agreed: There’s nothing, our young friends – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.