Amsterdam

On our next adventure Patrick, Cato and I set out for Amsterdam. We arrived late on a rainy Sunday night and all snuggled down in Olly’s flat to get a good nights rest so we’d be ready for a long day of sight seeing the next morning. 

The first order of business was a nice hot cup of coffee and a morning nibble to get us going so we wondered into a cute little coffee shop and picked up a menu.

Okay, I’m not thinking this is exactly the type of breakfast menu we were looking for. We moved on to the next coffee shop. It seems that all the shops in Amsterdam have resident cats, and upon entering the next coffee shop we were greeted by a lovely little kitty sitting on the counter minding his own business and taking no notice of the patrons what so ever.

We pulled up a stool at the counter and ordered a couple of Café Lattes and had a look around. (Ignoring the cat that was still on the end of the counter) The coffee was very good, but with a display of “pre-rolled joints”, next to the butt licking cat, and a bowl marked “Space Muffins” on the other side I wasn’t sure I really wanted to eat anything there.

Strolling along, Patrick found himself the perfect breakfast.

“What is it”, I ask?

“Ummmm, French fries and mayonnaise, here try one”, he says. Uh… thanks, but I’ll pass.

Amsterdam is an interesting place, but trying to get around is a bit difficult. First of all, like London everyone is driving on the wrong side of the road. In addition to this there are millions of bicycles and motor scooters, all of which ride on the sidewalks and seem to have the right of way. Pedestrians appear to be on the bottom of the “right of way” list so you have be very careful not to be plowed down. And if your car is small enough and you have a handicap sticker, you can drive that on the sidewalk too.

Some of the streets and alleys are quite small and congested. Many of the old buildings seem to lean forward as if they will topple over.

We only had one day in Amsterdam, but it was quite a day I must say. We ended up having a great Indonesian dinner in a restaurant Cato found and finished off the day with a pint in a pub on our way back.

The next morning we packed up our stuff so we would be ready to head for the airport in the afternoon and headed out for one last bit of early sightseeing. We wanted to visit at least one museum and the closest one was of course, “The Hash Marijuana Hemp Museum.” (Go figure!) Located conveniently right next door to the “Sensi Seed Bank’s Grow Shop”.

Sure enough we found it.

Imagine, the first thing we saw when we walked inside were little porcelain statues of non-other but, Cheech and Chong.

They did have some interesting stuff:

One thing I noticed as we wondered around was that the folks in Amsterdam seem to be obsessed with aliens.

(Maybe they just eat too many space muffins there.)

So we wondered on around the city taking a last look before heading back to London.

In all it was a beautiful place, even if it did rain most of the time.