a hiking trip to amsterdam

[StonedSince67]

introduction

throughout the year i had been wondering whether i had enough money to visit amsterdam in january to celebrate my 65th birthday, i had been spending a lot on my old house for things like a new roof and at the end of year a painter/decorator was coming to fix the large cracks in the plaster (from years of the house settling and a mini-earthquake 2 or 3 years) and paint all the interior

my part of the preparation process was to pack up everything into boxes so that the painter could get access to all the walls and ceilings, this turned out to be a huge job and it took me many weeks to get to the point where there was one empty room he could start in, the idea was that as he finished one room i could move all the boxes from another room into the empty room and he could start painting the nearly cleared room

all this box packing and moving left me feeling knackered and unsettled as essentially i was now camping in my own house, living out of cardboard boxes and sleeping in a sleeping bag in whatever cleanish corner i could find

so finally i thought that even though i didn't really have any money spare i needed some time away from the daily chaos and dust storms of redecorating, i also felt that my 65th was a big enough moment in my life to justify a trip to mokum

when i go to amsterdam, i like to spend time in the zuid kennemerland nationaal park ...

dutch website: http://www.npzk.nl/
english website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuid-Kenne ... ional_Park

the 1:20000 map for the park is entitled Wandel- en Fietskaart Nationaal Park Zuid-Kennemerland and is published by ANWB ... here is a picture of the map ... the map shows the footpaths and cycle paths and makes journey planning easy

i bought my copy from Reisboekhandel Pied a Terre, Overtoom 135-137 in Amsterdam ... the website starts in Dutch, but if you scroll down a page you can select English as the language

my one worry about the trip was that since the middle of november i had been vapourising with my new arizer extreme q instead of smoking joints, after a week or so of vapourising i smoked a trial joint and found it tasted disgusting and full of tar, after that i just vapourised, so i was apprehensive about landing in amsterdam and having to smoke joints again after seven weeks

so despite the money and joint-smoking worries i decided i needed a break and booked up the hotel and the ferry ... here is a brief report of my trip


thursday 5 jan

fortunately the painter was still ill and didn't show up today, this allowed me to prepare for my departure at 430pm on the bus in a more relaxed manner than i had feared, so after a bath and a final pack i had the time to bend a few elbows before leaving the house, the bus ran ok and the train was on time, so fortified by a coffee and a panini at the station cafe i boarded the train for harwich and was soon on the boat and in my bunk ready for the early start the next morning


friday 6 jan

the ferry journey was problem-free and at 745am i was off the boat and on the train for rotterdam where i changed and was in amsterdam by 1015, hurrah, first stop was the hotel to have a couple of cups of dutch coffee and leave my backpack

the second stop was la tertulia for a gram of super silver haze and a bit of super pollem and a coffee and my first joint in seven weeks, after an hour or so here i moved on to paradox for some of their ssh and moroccan "wash" hashish

after a couple of hours here i moved on to basjoe where they had no amnesia haze or spacecake and i had to make do with some royal hash, their moroccan

then it was time for supper which as usual was down at the maoz falafel place near the hotel, then back to the hotel for an early night as i was knackered from the travelling and the pre-trip box moving


saturday 7 jan

today was my first walking day, so after a good solid breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast with butter and a couple slices of cheese as well as orange juice and innumerable cups of coffee i was off to the train station for a journey to santport noord

the walk was on footpaths that i knew well in one of my favourite areas of the national park and was very pleasant, i was naughty and did some off-path walking to the top of a hill where i had a view of a lovely little lake, it would have been a nice place for a picnic and a day's smoking in peace but the weather wasn't suitable for stopping long anywhere, so after a slightly dodgy descent on a steep muddy hillside i went to the sea to watch the north sea waves crashing onto the beach in 30 mile per hour winds

it was getting dark about 430pm so i made my return and after another maoz crashed into bed totally exhausted


sunday 8 jan

the knees had been a bit of an issue on yesterday's walk so i declared a rest day and headed to paradox where classical music was played throughout the morning, i stayed here for several hours recuperating from yesterday's walk

while i was there someone who looked a lot like cisco walked in and bought some turkish hash, from reading the forum's travel plans i knew cisco was in town so i thought that if the fellow at the table uses the end of his shoelace to poke at the end of his joint, then that fellow has to be cisco, however the fellow instead used the end of the string from his hoodie and that left me a bit confused

fortunately as i was leaving the fellow recognised me and it was indeed cisco, so i sat down at his table and we had a nice wee conversation about this and that and i had the chance to see his piece of turkish hash and give it a good look-over and it did seem very nice, i had been meaning to congratulate cisco if i saw him during the trip about his success at his model show in eindhoven, but due to being very stoned off the paradox volcano vapouriser i completely forgot, so i will say it now, "congratulations cisco on your most recent eindhoven result"

we walked a little ways down the street until cisco turned left for voyagers his hotel and i turned right for an early night to be ready for monday's walk in the park


monday 9 jan

the day's walk was to another favourite spot in the park, a small lake on a quiet footpath, there were two swans taking a rest in the lake, both had their head draped over their back and were very quiet, one had one of his feet on the lake bed in a shallow area and stayed put whilst resting, but the other swan was in the water, the wind was still strong and it kept pushing the swan toward the far edge of the lake, when it was too close, it would just paddle with its head on its back out into the lake a little way and then drift slowly back close to the shore, all this went on for ages with me just watching and having a smoke, finally they joined up and swam to the furthest down-wind end of the lake and suddenly started running on the water and then took off, i had a view from the back and was amazed at the huge wing-span, they soared off and then disappeared into the distance, it was quite a sight


tuesday 10 jan

again because of my sore knees, today was another rest day, so back to paradox for a top-up of my ssh and moroccan wash supplies, later i passed by basjoe but it was closed again


wednesday 11 jan

for my third walk i took the train to zandvoort and after quickly escaping the town, explored the surrounding dunes, soon i found myself in a position where i had to decide whether to walk back to zandvoort or carry on to overveen where i could board and still use my day return train ticket as it was on the zandvoort line

i chose to carry on to overveen, so i walked north until i met up with a path i knew well going in the right direction, this meant that i didn't have to worry about the navigation of new territory and could just spend my time walking and day-dreaming, one of my favourite activities

the walk was a long one and when i returned to town i was just too knackered to be able to manage a falafel, so just went back to the hotel for a supper of an apple and two mandarins and then straight to my second 11-hour long sleep of the trip


thursday 12 jan

another rest day even though the knees were not quite so bad as before, before going to paradox i went down to the albert cuyp market to a spice and herb shop called the peperbol to get some white, red, and green pepper corns and some jamaican pimento corns for a friend of mine who makes up his own mixture for grinding

then i walked back up to the public library going by basjoe to see if it was open and it wasn't, at the library i checked my emails and had a coffee and apple desert, then headed off to paradox, by now i was using their vapouriser with a bag to lessen the heat of a joint, i found the bag method to be very similar to the whip and learned that i should be running my machine at 185 and using only a tenth of a gram per smoke


friday 13 jan

today was my last walk and i decided to re-visit the swan lake but only by using footpaths that i had never been on before, this was fun and i found lots of new sights and areas

by now the muscles of my legs had gotten into better shape and that took the strain off the knees to some extent, that meant i could spend more time exploring and i didn't return to the train until it was getting dark, again i was too tired to eat dinner and managed with more fruit and a 10-hour long sleep

puzzled by basjoe being closed whenever i had passed by before during the week i walked to the hotel instead of taking the tram from centraal station and was hoping to have some time recuperating in basjoe, once again the shutters were down but surprisingly the shutter for the front entrance was not, however someone i didn't recognise was locking the door so i couldn't enter, and as the man returned to the back of the shop i could see through the glass james at the counter with two other men i didn't recognise, then i noticed that leo's picture and all the other pictures (hendrix etc) but not the posters had been removed and the walls decorated with fresh paint, it all looked a bit odd and i wondered whether i was indeed watching the moment when basjoe changed hands


saturday 14 jan

on saturday the dutch like to get out into their countryside so i left them to it and visited the hortus botanicus to check out their winter garden plants, the highlight of the visit was the butterfly shed where there were a couple of dozen butterflies flying all around, it was quite a sight and very special

i then just spent my time at paradox vapourising and reading my book, i also finished off my wanderings in the jordaan looking at the gevelstenen


sunday 15 jan

after leaving my backpack at the hotel until 4pm, i went to paradox to see if i could smoke up all my remaining ssh and hashish, i did my best smoking a pipeful every half-hour or so from 11am to 4pm, man did i end up stoned, but i couldn't quite finish my stash

then it was time to retrieve the backpack, make my way to the train station and hoek van holland and the ferry, i went straight to bed to ready for the early morning arrival at harwich


monday 16 jan

we docked about 630am and my train wasn't until 750am so i found a quiet seat and read my book until the train departed, the arrival was on-time and after a bus ride i was back home around 11am

when i got back i was so knackered that monday was a blur, tuesday was better though i was still tired, wednesday i had more of a brain and some energy, what was a nice surprise is that upon weighing myself at home after the trip it turned out that i lost about 3 kilos with all the exercise and the missed dinners, my trail food was cereal bars and fresh fruit so i was keeping up with most of my nutritional needs, i just couldn't cope with the main course falafel after an exhausting walk

so that was my birthday trip for 2012 and now i am an oap (old age pensioner), o whoopee

[matty223]

Nice

[Lamont]

Nice report thanks!

[Hotdog]

great report, i just hope I can still manage amsterdam and all that comes with if i'm lucky enough to see my 60's!

[Willjay]

Well done and HAPPY BIRTHDAY, glad to see your "OAP" has started, live long Mine starts in 976 days but who's counting

[geoffk]

Excellent, loved it.

[spidergawd]

Well done and Happy Birthday Stoney .

I think you are counting Willjay

[Dave near London]

Brilliant - was Ludo in Paradox ?

Be there in less than a fortnight ...

[Slybear]

Nice report. I wish I lived closer & could make some short trips. Hope I'll be back someday

[TwoCanucks]

Really enjoyed this report, thanks for taking the time. It would be neat indeed if that was the changing of the guard at Basjoe.

[geekymonkey]

Thanks so much! I really enjoyed the report. Also, thanks for turning me on to the "Wash" at paradox- I really enjoyed it when I tried it.

the day's walk was to another favourite spot in the park, a small lake on a quiet footpath, there were two swans taking a rest in the lake, both had their head draped over their back and were very quiet, one had one of his feet on the lake bed in a shallow area and stayed put whilst resting, but the other swan was in the water, the wind was still strong and it kept pushing the swan toward the far edge of the lake, when it was too close, it would just paddle with its head on its back out into the lake a little way and then drift slowly back close to the shore, all this went on for ages with me just watching and having a smoke, finally they joined up and swam to the furthest down-wind end of the lake and suddenly started running on the water and then took off, i had a view from the back and was amazed at the huge wing-span, they soared off and then disappeared into the distance, it was quite a sight

I enjoyed this entry especially. Well written! Lovely.

Funny, I was supposed to be in town that weekend too, but the trip got cancelled because of a family emergency. I think you might have witnessed the changeover at Basjoe's. I'm sort of glad I missed it.

[StonedSince67]

Brilliant - was Ludo in Paradox ?

Be there in less than a fortnight ...

i saw ludo on the two sundays i was there, the younger tall guy was working during the week monday to friday (and maybe saturday too) ... both are really nice people and very helpful and knowledgeable about what they sell

and don't forget to take a close look at the tables and chairs, each has a different painting on them ... it makes quite a collection

i really love paradox

[grateful deb]

Nice trip! (and report).

Happy Birthday. Nothing like celebrating your birthday in the Dam!!!!

[ftcarer]

Excellent read

[Bilbo Baggins]

This report somehow escaped my normally inquisitive peepers, I love the alternative way you are going about your trip, it seems so much more interesting than just sitting around in Coffeeshops getting wrecked, it proves you can walk around and do interesting stuff wrecked. Good travelogue mate.