Tour the World by Paddle-boat

Although not highly prestigious or swift, paddle-boats get you down to the water level and let you see things from a vantage point that you never would otherwise.  Ok, it looks cheesy when you see tourists paddling along some waterway in their goofy white paddle boats, but forget your ‘cool’, and just hop into a paddle-boat whenever you can–there’s no better way to cruise a new city.

I can’t honestly remember the first time I rented a paddle-boat.  It was probably when I was still a kid.  But as an adult perhaps my oldest memory of paddle-boating was in Catalina.  I had taken my daughter and my nephew out to the island to explore.  We considered renting a golf-cart, which seemed to be the preferred mode of island transportation at the time, but in the end we did a little tour on board a mini golf-cart bus/train, as I recall.  After which we took a glass bottom boat tour and then decided to rent a paddle-boat and goof around the marina for an hour or so.  We annoyed all the serious sailors.  That was fun.  We were down so close to the water that we could see the bright little orange Garibaldi fish swimming through the kelp forests in the bay.  We paddled under a couple of little broken down piers, wove between the sailboat slips and generally had a great time.

Since then I have taken the opportunity, whenever possible, to rent a paddle-boat.  We once rented paddle-boats in the late afternoon light on the Vltava river in Prague.

As the big boats drifted past us filled with tourists peering curiously over the sides, we laughed, turned in little circles, snapped pictures, and propelled ourselves furiously across the water when necessary.  We saw every bit as much as the folks on their tour boat and more, and had a lot more fun doing it!

Another paddle-boat trip that comes to mind was in Crete.  On our last day in Greece we went to the beach.  It was a glorious brilliantly sunny day and the water was so turquoise that it seemed surreal.

We swam in the bay and took photos with little underwater disposable cameras, then decided to rent one of the paddle-boats we saw sitting over by the beach.  Again this time it was a blast.

We went out to sea.

They gave us no restrictions really, so we just took off out of the little bay and along the coastline.  There is, of course, a limit to the paddling one can do because it does require some manpower.  But once the adrenalin gets pumping and the wind is blowing through your hair, its easy.  We crossed another bay and the waves were getting to be pretty large.  Some big boats were coming along which we weren't completely sure we could paddle away from quickly enough, so we turned back to our own little bay and annoyed the power-boaters there.  But again this was great.

Another 'big boat' avoidance paddle was in the harbor area of Flåm, Norway. Enormous cruise liners navigate in and out the fjord each day–some just day tripping, others there for the night. Its always a little intimidating when you pull up close to one of those monsters, even if they are parked. But I'll admit I was more nervous about falling in the icy water than about side-swiping the cruise liners. However, all went swimmingly–we had no mishaps other than cramped legs due to a long bike ride we'd done earlier that day (renting bikes is another fabulous way to check out a new environment, even if its a little more labor intensive).

 
So, in Amsterdam when we saw the paddle-boats we just had to hop onboard.  We had been taking photos like madmen for days in the city already, but the little paddle-boats give you a view from the canals that you wouldn’t get otherwise.  Now we were getting some nice pictures from the water level.

The tour boat drivers were resigned to paddle-boat idiots and just wearily ignored them unless a collision was imminent. But we would forever be about to round a corner and there would be a monstrous tour boat making the turn down our canal.  We’d get the "look" and then we’d throw it in reverse (paddling furiously backward) and hover next to the canal wall until the thing passed. We’d also just mosey past folks at little cafés who tried not to notice that we were snapping their pictures as we paddled by.

But that’s the charm of Amsterdam!  There is no expectation of privacy on the streets or canals.  It’s a zoo of people everywhere and everything is really fair game for a photo.  (How the locals survive the summer with the hoards of tourists is quite beyond me–but I suspect that a good deal of the folks lining the streets in the sidewalk cafés were not the locals.)
  
One regret of my trip, however, was in Utrecht.  We spied some paddle-boaters inching down the smalls canals there and decided we had to rent one.  In Utrecht the canals are not used to the same degree they are in Amsterdam, so there was only the occasional small dingy with a motor other than the paddle-boats.

Also, in Utrecht the canals are down on a full lower level, where there is a sort of subterranean restaurant life going on.  It would have been the perfect place to rent a paddle-boat and explore.

But we put it off until the afternoon and when we went to the little stand, we found that it was less than an hour before closing and we were out of luck...sadly.

But we did a follow-up paddle-boat race with our fellow travelers the last day in Amsterdam.

We paddled down little dead-end canals, crossed dangerously in front of big mondo boats, skirted along the rows of house-boats at window level and peered in, and generally had a grand day out.

 My advice?  Take the paddle-boat whenever its an option.