Mr Incognito just can't wait any longer

[HitTheNorth]

Great stuff Mr I! Seems as though we may have been in Siberie at roughly the same time. Did you enjoy the downpour on weds, I was still wet when in Siberie! Enjoying your write up as always, hope the rest of your trip is a blast

[Mr Incognito]

Last day in the Dam and I wake up late, but still in time for breakfast. I gawp out over the roofs - I can see the Rijksmuseum across the Amstel, the Tropen Museum behind me, and the city centre on the horizon. It's a bit grey still but promising to be a decent day, so I take up @bedge on his offer of a tour of Alkmaar.

The train takes about 30mins, and it's €17.80 return including €1 for the ticket if you get a printed one. It's a pleasant enough train journey - through the polders and suburban settlements, lots of scenic canals and fields full of cattle to keep the brain amused.

Alkmaar is a smallish town with some beautiful architecture. It was seemingly built in the 17th century, and it is home of the cheese market and a cheese museum. Plus a smallish coffeeshop scene, which is definitely recommended. We were welcomed as ever first to de Brug, an oldish shop with a perfectly acceptable menu. I got a gram of the Red Cherry Berry at €12.50, which was a nice smoke. We had no company in the upper smoking room. We watched the comings and goings and talked about the usual things - submarines. Archaeology, the effects of truffles. The latter brought on by a quick stop at the headshop over the canal which used to sell weed but sadly does no longer.

There is more to see in Alkmaar though and we headed over to Anytime, which is right next door to Zero Zero. Google directed me to walk through the redlight street, so anyone following in our footsteps with a polite disposition, please divert your eyes. That street spits you out into a fantastically elegant neighborhood of Alkmaar, full of ancient buildings and fancy shops. And just round the corner lie first Zero Zero, then Anytime. This has lots of very strict no tobacco signs, but the guy that owns it is very friendly and we get offered a Verdamper to use. Into that goes a gram of Amnesia Haze at €12 and some of the Blue Cheese from Speakeasy yesterday. I was mighty impressed with the huge clouds of vape produced, and the number of hits we got. Nice!

We wandered back through town, pausing for an amazing banana donut thing and a watch of the funfair. People were being strapped to some contraption that then span them round and flung them about. Not my idea of fun but @bedge nearly had a go!

Back on the train , which was a slow one that took a little longer. Just as pleasant a journey, then bang and you are back at Centraal with the rest of the day ahead of you....

[macky]

Thanks for sharing..nice read

[Not_the_monk]

Indeed, a really good read, thanks for that!

So the batcave is open again then (even if closing early while you were there)? Last report in the Batavia thread said it was still closed back in April iirc, good to hear that's not still the case.

[Mr Incognito]

Yes, Batcave very much open again, but it was shutting at about 10.30 or so - a bit like pubs in the olden days! This was due to there being not enough customers - it was really quiet, as was Amsterdam in general. The last time I was there was August 2019, and it was much busier then. It was easy to find a table to eat, the bars were all half empty, I hardly had to wait to get served at a coffeeshop, etc etc etc.

So if the tourist trade picks up, I guess the likes of the batcave will stay open longer. The bottle shop was staying open later, as were a few other bars.