Ron and Liz are tourists!
Posted: Wed 22nd Jul 2009 07:34 pm
Day 1, Friday 17 July:
Beautiful Amsterdam! The weather reports could not have been more wrong. Many millimeters of rain were called for. There were meant to be only scant minutes of sunshine each day of our trip.
We were prepared for the worst.
I had intentionally left behind my sunglasses and brought only my heavy waterproof boots. Maybe this created the right mojo for the trip however, as the gods relented and there were only the briefest moments of light rain occasionally throughout our three day stay. Mostly the sun shone through quickly passing clouds. In fact, after checking in at our hotel near Vondelpark, one of our first notable sights was of sunbathers in the park!
I'd screwed up badly not printing out the vouchers for the iAmsterdam cards my wife and I had bought before the trip, so no amount of cajoling, pleading or wheedling could get the lovely ladies at their counter in the Schiphol plaza to produce the cards for us. This meant an unplanned excursion from the Central Station, hoofing it to the new library on Oosterdokskade for internet access and a printer. The library is supermodern and the folk there are helpful. €0.20 and a walk back to the CS later and we had our travel and museum cards in hand. Time wasted through husbandly foolishness: about an hour and a half.
So after that trek and the tram to our hotel check-in, our very late lunch at Tapa Feliz was very welcome. We sat outside on the Emmastraat, a quiet tree-lined street a couple blocks south of the Vondelpark. Assorted tapas, well-prepared and generous servings, with a few cold beers. Delicious stuff, we'd definitely return!
Refreshed, we were off to our first planned stop: Yo-yo coffeeshop. Much as I remembered it from my solo trip last fall, Yo-yo is quiet, off the tourist path (although quite easily reachable by tram) and very welcoming. On our arrival near 3PM on a Friday, there was only the staff present. We chose a couple of espressos (serviceable if unremarkable) and a gram of the Majesteit greenhouse weed. This was a very good choice for us, having gone nearly a year without smoking. Nice taste. Perhaps unavoidably, Bob Marley is playing. But hell, it is my favorite, Exodus. The high establishes itself quickly but gently and after spending only a few moments at a sunny bar table we feel energized for a walk north into the 7 bridges area.
Nice place for a walk on a sunny day. More people out pursuing their tans. Feeling very good about not having brought those sunglasses, like I'd pulled one over on the powers that be. Ha!
And what's this now? We've stumbled by accident (or so I persuade my innocent wife!) upon Stix on the Utrechtsestraat! We must go in, we must! This is another place slightly outside the most popular tourist paths, but just two blocks south of the crowded Rembrandtplein. A very kind lady budtender shows me all of the hashes on offer and I elect for a gram of the Nepal Temple Ball, which looks like nothing other than a thin chocolate gummy worm. We sit in one of the small bench spaces in the window (there are only two tables there, as I recall it now) and smoke some more bowls of the Yo-yo Majesteit. Happiness seems to have come to stay for a while. We tram up to the Centrum.
An hour or two blurs past as we walk around the Centrum. Late in the afternoon, we reach Homegrown Fantasy as planned, but as there are no open tables and we're still pleasantly baked, we walk right back out. A little further up Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal we do stop in Grasshopper, but the vibe is just wrong for us -- we have a coffee and leave without either buying any new gear or even hitting our stash, because I realize that we are really only several steps away from 4:20 coffeeshop. We head there.
Reviewing 4:20's menu, I ask the budtender for a look at the Neville's Haze, following a tip from this board. Before I can properly see it, the scent from the opened container hits me -- I already know I'm buying it right then. The buds are lovely, hairy, sticky things. But just a gram, since I don't want to crowd out future planned purchases. We roll one up (OK, my wife rolls one up -- my spliff skills are limited to consumption, not production. Left alone, I'd use the pipe exclusively) and hit it there and then. This for us is a really expansive, dominating high. The missus later explains she can't smoke any more of _that_ one on this trip!
Another short walk over to Greenhouse Effect lounge for a beer and to check the drink/smoke scene. The area seemed to be reserved for hotel guests, but the bartender told us to just duck under the rope and join the crowd, which we did. Not really a big area for smoke-and-drink, but comfortable enough. Couldn't stay too long, because...
Hey, it's time to head to our concert! Unable to figure out where to get a tram 25 or 26, we again hoof it. We're soon enough at the Bimhuis, where it rapidly becomes clear that I needn't have worried about getting tickets. This is going to be no sellout show. Plenty of time for drinks in their cafe, overlooking het IJ at sunset: more Amsterdam beauty. We have a couple of Palm beers and are in the concerthall right on time.
Mary Halvorson Trio are not any kind of household name, not even at my house and I've got their CD. Nevertheless, they are one fabulous little jazz group. The 30 or so of us present were in for a real treat. Not some kind of abstract free thing (like Brötzmann, if you will), each song is in the neighborhood of 6 minutes, almost miniatures really in a genre where 20+ minute 'songs' are quite typical. It's all very clear compositions, with strange and unexpected platforms for improvisation by guitar, drum and bass. Don't miss 'em.
We don't stay for the 2nd set, since dinner is necessary, now! Happily the 25 tram takes us quickly down to de Pijp, and we find Kagetsu open. Japanese noodles. We are sated. I keep their business card with a map on the back, mentally planning many future 'Dam trips...
Back to the room, and our delightful balcony overlooking Vondelpark. Couple of tokes and it's time to get some sleep. But we try the room TV and find a repeat of Lost from last season -- the one where Ben interrupts John's suicide attempt and then murders him. This is absolutely harrowing and I find I can't sleep for hours, repeatedly returning to the balcony and sitting in the cool park breeze. Eventually I do manage drop off to sleep, thank goodness. There's a big day ahead in what is going to be a much too short weekend.
Beautiful Amsterdam! The weather reports could not have been more wrong. Many millimeters of rain were called for. There were meant to be only scant minutes of sunshine each day of our trip.
We were prepared for the worst.
I had intentionally left behind my sunglasses and brought only my heavy waterproof boots. Maybe this created the right mojo for the trip however, as the gods relented and there were only the briefest moments of light rain occasionally throughout our three day stay. Mostly the sun shone through quickly passing clouds. In fact, after checking in at our hotel near Vondelpark, one of our first notable sights was of sunbathers in the park!
I'd screwed up badly not printing out the vouchers for the iAmsterdam cards my wife and I had bought before the trip, so no amount of cajoling, pleading or wheedling could get the lovely ladies at their counter in the Schiphol plaza to produce the cards for us. This meant an unplanned excursion from the Central Station, hoofing it to the new library on Oosterdokskade for internet access and a printer. The library is supermodern and the folk there are helpful. €0.20 and a walk back to the CS later and we had our travel and museum cards in hand. Time wasted through husbandly foolishness: about an hour and a half.
So after that trek and the tram to our hotel check-in, our very late lunch at Tapa Feliz was very welcome. We sat outside on the Emmastraat, a quiet tree-lined street a couple blocks south of the Vondelpark. Assorted tapas, well-prepared and generous servings, with a few cold beers. Delicious stuff, we'd definitely return!
Refreshed, we were off to our first planned stop: Yo-yo coffeeshop. Much as I remembered it from my solo trip last fall, Yo-yo is quiet, off the tourist path (although quite easily reachable by tram) and very welcoming. On our arrival near 3PM on a Friday, there was only the staff present. We chose a couple of espressos (serviceable if unremarkable) and a gram of the Majesteit greenhouse weed. This was a very good choice for us, having gone nearly a year without smoking. Nice taste. Perhaps unavoidably, Bob Marley is playing. But hell, it is my favorite, Exodus. The high establishes itself quickly but gently and after spending only a few moments at a sunny bar table we feel energized for a walk north into the 7 bridges area.
Nice place for a walk on a sunny day. More people out pursuing their tans. Feeling very good about not having brought those sunglasses, like I'd pulled one over on the powers that be. Ha!
And what's this now? We've stumbled by accident (or so I persuade my innocent wife!) upon Stix on the Utrechtsestraat! We must go in, we must! This is another place slightly outside the most popular tourist paths, but just two blocks south of the crowded Rembrandtplein. A very kind lady budtender shows me all of the hashes on offer and I elect for a gram of the Nepal Temple Ball, which looks like nothing other than a thin chocolate gummy worm. We sit in one of the small bench spaces in the window (there are only two tables there, as I recall it now) and smoke some more bowls of the Yo-yo Majesteit. Happiness seems to have come to stay for a while. We tram up to the Centrum.
An hour or two blurs past as we walk around the Centrum. Late in the afternoon, we reach Homegrown Fantasy as planned, but as there are no open tables and we're still pleasantly baked, we walk right back out. A little further up Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal we do stop in Grasshopper, but the vibe is just wrong for us -- we have a coffee and leave without either buying any new gear or even hitting our stash, because I realize that we are really only several steps away from 4:20 coffeeshop. We head there.
Reviewing 4:20's menu, I ask the budtender for a look at the Neville's Haze, following a tip from this board. Before I can properly see it, the scent from the opened container hits me -- I already know I'm buying it right then. The buds are lovely, hairy, sticky things. But just a gram, since I don't want to crowd out future planned purchases. We roll one up (OK, my wife rolls one up -- my spliff skills are limited to consumption, not production. Left alone, I'd use the pipe exclusively) and hit it there and then. This for us is a really expansive, dominating high. The missus later explains she can't smoke any more of _that_ one on this trip!
Another short walk over to Greenhouse Effect lounge for a beer and to check the drink/smoke scene. The area seemed to be reserved for hotel guests, but the bartender told us to just duck under the rope and join the crowd, which we did. Not really a big area for smoke-and-drink, but comfortable enough. Couldn't stay too long, because...
Hey, it's time to head to our concert! Unable to figure out where to get a tram 25 or 26, we again hoof it. We're soon enough at the Bimhuis, where it rapidly becomes clear that I needn't have worried about getting tickets. This is going to be no sellout show. Plenty of time for drinks in their cafe, overlooking het IJ at sunset: more Amsterdam beauty. We have a couple of Palm beers and are in the concerthall right on time.
Mary Halvorson Trio are not any kind of household name, not even at my house and I've got their CD. Nevertheless, they are one fabulous little jazz group. The 30 or so of us present were in for a real treat. Not some kind of abstract free thing (like Brötzmann, if you will), each song is in the neighborhood of 6 minutes, almost miniatures really in a genre where 20+ minute 'songs' are quite typical. It's all very clear compositions, with strange and unexpected platforms for improvisation by guitar, drum and bass. Don't miss 'em.
We don't stay for the 2nd set, since dinner is necessary, now! Happily the 25 tram takes us quickly down to de Pijp, and we find Kagetsu open. Japanese noodles. We are sated. I keep their business card with a map on the back, mentally planning many future 'Dam trips...
Back to the room, and our delightful balcony overlooking Vondelpark. Couple of tokes and it's time to get some sleep. But we try the room TV and find a repeat of Lost from last season -- the one where Ben interrupts John's suicide attempt and then murders him. This is absolutely harrowing and I find I can't sleep for hours, repeatedly returning to the balcony and sitting in the cool park breeze. Eventually I do manage drop off to sleep, thank goodness. There's a big day ahead in what is going to be a much too short weekend.
