Strolling through the canals of Amsterdam is one of the goals of any tourist, but you can go further: you can sleep on the canals , in the sentry boxes of the guards who guarded and controlled the drawbridges of the city.
In 2012 the bridge opening system was digitized and now the guard booths have become beautiful hotel rooms with incredible panoramic views . It is not an ordinary hotel, there is no reception or elevator here, but who needs it when you have the city, the canals and dozens of ships at the door of your room?
Around the tangle of more than 1,200 canals that criss-cross Amsterdam, there are bridge house for all tastes: from the 17th century or the beginning of this century, close to the bustling center of Amsterdam or in neighborhoods that tourists do not normally visit -Amsterdam has many faces, apart from the center, the Dam square and the red light district -, accessible on foot or only by boat.
The room lacks nothing.
SLEEP AT SWEET HOTEL
We stay with SWEETS hotel, which has transformed 28 bridge houses into hotel rooms.
The exterior of the room is surprising: a white cubicle raised above the canal . Not a usual place for a hotel room. When you open the door, with an app on your phone, you discover that yes, inside there is a room with a very careful design and layout. Nothing is missing: towels, hair dryer, radiator, books, magazines, chess, Internet, bathroom, kitchen, rocking chair, double bed –and doubly comfortable–, and windows, lots of windows.
water is everywhere ; you see it from the bathroom, from the kitchen, from the porch. From the bed you see the moon rise and you control the traffic, which is decreasing. The tram, the cars and the bicycles pass less and less frequently, like the last drops on a glass when it has stopped raining. You stay alone in a house elevated a few meters above the city.
The lights sneak in here and there. Green lights then amber then red. The lampposts, which in Amsterdam hang from wires -they don't usually have support feet-, wobble in the night wind. And the water, which is heard, which seems to speak to you, reflects the silence of the city . It is a place, we would say, romantic. A place to drink wine, watch the moon turn and have that rare feeling of "what does the world matter out there".
Zeilstraatbrug.
LIKE SLEEPING IN A LIGHTHOUSE
Sleeping in a bridge house must be an experience similar to sleep in a lighthouse Similar to the solitude, calm and tranquility felt by the lighthouse keeper waiting for some ship to discover their signals.
Early in the morning the siren sounds announcing that the bridge is going to open, and the barriers, once erect, begin to lower: traffic stops. The bridge begins to rise, slowly but surely, and on both sides pedestrians, cyclists, cars, motorcycles wait patiently for the maneuver to end. A few seconds after the bridge opens, a ship crosses light, resolved.
The bridge lowers and closes, a metallic knock confirms it; the barriers recover their verticality; and the siren sounds again announcing the restoration of traffic: vehicles and pedestrians continue on their way. The operation only lasts a few minutes. This choreography, this industrial ballet, was previously orchestrated from the bridge house , now some computer program takes care of it. Some cyclists must not know that the process was digitized and, as the march resumes, they greet you, as if you were still the guardian of the bridge.
Have you ever slept in such a place?
In these rooms you don't see the city, you become it . And, sleeping next to the canals, you understand the importance of water in this city of merchant tradition.
While I have a last coffee, enjoying the privileged view of the city, I find a welcome card on the table, it sums up the stay well: “Sweets hotel, sweet dreams” . I close the door, again without going through reception or any elevator, and I leave. Sentinel day is over.