We are still in the shipyard and the sun has again appeared after a heavy rainfall. The boat and the windows are dirty from all the dust and grit generated by the yard from the comings and goings of the workmen.
I thought I'd give my Dutch window cleaning genes a try. I have seen the ritual of window cleaning in Harlingen; it is not much different from the one I saw in Amsterdam. The Dutch all seem to love cleaning windows and it is almost like a religion. Once a week they appear with bucket, stepladder and cloths and thoroughly clean the windows, inside and out. They even take time to wipe the frames and sills. Maybe there is a window cleaning contest going on that I am not aware off.
The last time I cleaned boat windows was onboard Sequitur in the Patagonian canals. It was in the middle of the summer, and I was dressed in foulies cleaning sleet off the windows as we entered the Furious Fifties. I now prefer doing it in sunshine on the canals of Europe.
I must admit that the windows are smaller and fewer in number than the ones I was accustom to in Vancouver. My houses in Deep Cove and on Vancouver Island both had two stories, and there I called in the window washers.
On Zonder Zorg the windows are easily reachable and it is lovely to look through clean windows. I will join the Dutch in the ritual of cleaning all the windows once a week, at least while the barge is in the Netherlands.
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