Pictures by Ruth
For our first two nights I’d booked us into the Old Quarter hotel on Warmoesstraat, Amsterdam. It’s so named because Warmoesstraat is the oldest street in Amsterdam. Originally it would have had wooden buildings alongside the Amstel river. The river no longer flows this way but its former course is marked by the Damrak basin.
I like staying in the centre of the action and the view over the Damrak from the hotel window is always interesting.
DamrakOther than that, Old Quarter is typical of hotels in this area by being adequate but nothing special considering the price. You pay for the location.
Our first coffeeshop call was Hunters Bar because it’s right next to the hotel. This was our first trip to the Netherlands since quitting tobacco so I bought some Outdoor Purple Haze for 4 euros and rolled a pure joint. This is a not-too-potent high sativa variety with a nice taste that wouldn’t immobilise us too early in the day.
With a nice buzz on we wandered into Baba Souvenir shop and stared at the vast array of pipes. I contemplated getting a Bud Bomb as my Volcano is not very portable. The price in Baba’s was better than other places around the centre.
The southern half of Warmoesstraat is not very interesting and a better route to Dam Square is to take one of the turnings towards the back of the Old Church (Oude Kerk), opposite the gay cinema, and into the Red Light District or into Oudebrugsteeg by Baba’s coffeeshop.
Oudebrugsteeg from Warmoesstraat towards DamrakWe took the latter option across the Oude Brug (Old Bridge) and Damrak into Nieuwendijk where there are lots more shops to ogle at. Continuing onto Haarlemmerstraat we popped into Pink Floyd for another joint and a coffee.
Later I picked up some Cantalope Haze from Greenhouse Effect and established a habit that was to continue for the rest of the tour – rolling pure joints made with high-grade sativas, such as Hazes, padded out with natural sativas like Thai and Jamaican.
That evening we checked out The Coin and popped into the big Conscious Dreams on Warmoesstraat for some herbal ecstasy. Later we were sitting in Sheeba and fancied a beer so we crossed the road to Het Oerwood. We’d never been there before, but it sells alcohol and Sheeba doesn’t. It is much more of a bar than a coffeeshop with an unremarkable menu but that was perfect as we had plenty of good grass and wanted a beer. The cheesy music wasn’t encouraging though.
Waking up too late for the hotel breakfast, we decided to head for Paradox, a quieter alternative to Barney’s these days. Had some nice vegeburgers and a joint to start the day.
From here it was back across the centre to Basjoe to meet regular correspondent “Epsilon”. Over several more joints, Epsilon entertained us with stories of the West Virginian mountains and Leewarden, a town that we were to visit the next day.
The next few hours were pretty hazy as we staggered around several headshops and into de Kuil for a beer and a smoke. Later we popped into Bassment, the coffeeshop underneath the Red Light Bar right in the middle of the Red Light District.
Before long we were back at de Kuil where we got some nice Sage. Following the trail of shops on Nieuwendijk led us to Freeworld where we stopped for another drink and joint before a final stop at Hill Street Blues.
The next day it was time for the tour to begin exploring new territory. On our journey north we had to change trains at Amersfoort so we decided to take a look around. With no map and no sense we set forth on a vague quest for coffeeshops.
There was a big map outside the south side of the station that suggested we needed to turn left towards the old town centre, veering right before the road crossed the railway. After walking a short distance we spotted an unexpected railway bridge up ahead and everyone veering to the right down a small turning.
After a long detour around a residential district we eventually found the old centre ...
Hof, Amersfoort... and the coffeeshop Trenchtown.
TrenchtownReturning to the station we passed straight through to the north side and again managed to find the longest possible route, this time to coffeeshop The Zoo.
At least we found our way back to the station easily enough and were soon completing our journey to Leeuwarden and our home for the next two nights, the Bilderberg Oranje Hotel.
This is a smart hotel costing less than a basic place in Amsterdam. All of our hotels were booked through the bookings service on the site . Leeuwarden is the capital of the northwestern province of Friesland, which is proudly famous for its Friesian cows.
FrieslandWalking up Grote Hoogstraat, a street lined with bars, later that evening, I was struck by how quiet it was on the street. There were plenty of people in the bars but the noise didn’t seem to spill put onto the street in contrast to UK cities or even Amsterdam.
We got to Repelsteeltje, de Os and Downtown that night, all of which are nice coffeeshops.
Leeuwarden is famous for its leaning tower, Oldehove. It also has a bigger, modern tower called Avero-toren.
LeeuwardenWhilst in the north, we took a ride to Groningen
Groningenwhere we checked out Metamorphose coffeeshop.
From the north we headed to the extreme south and Maastricht. Here we stayed in a nice old hotel near to the station called Le Roi.
MaastrichtIn Maastricht we checked out the famous Kosbor, which has an excellent menu, the quality of which is reflected in the permanent queue at the weed counter. Best of all, though, was Heaven, an extraordinary place with food, space and a beautiful environment.
On our return journey we stopped off in Utrecht. The route out of the station took us through a shopping centre and a market on our way to the famous sunken Oudegracht (Old Canal). The canal has several restaurants and coffeeshops both at canal level and on the street above.
Oudegracht, UtrechtSarasani and No Name were both closed and Andersom only allows entry if you buy weed on your way in. I’ve always objected to this practice but, apparently, it’s normal in Utrecht. Later we stopped in Wietstok.
That night we stayed in Alkmaar in another smart hotel, Best Western Amrâth.
AlkmaarJust beyond the town’s little Red Light District we found coffeeshop De Brug on a corner at the edge of the old town. Later we visited Anytime.
Finally we had to return to Amsterdam for the flight home. For some reason there were no trains running so we had to catch a bus via Purmerend. We still managed to squeeze in some shopping and visits to Double Reggae and Nes though.
