glad to hear your trip is going well. Thanks again
Hup Holland!
NL -06-AMSZut-Am'foort,Zeeland,Breda,Hrlm
Back in the Mountains ...Great trip ...NL stops included Amsterdam , Zutphen, Deventer, Amersfoort, Middleburg,Goes,Zierikzee,Breda,Haarlem...
The Best weed award would have to go to Breda , not necessarily the best shops ,but definitely the best weed ...The TC rates the Silver Purl (yeah its spelled that way) from CS Majestic as the best of the Trip ...with some Master Kush from Paradijs as 2nd ...Best Hash award would go to whatever we bought from DC at NES ...Favorite town would have to be Zutphen ...what a gem ...take out the cars and you have a medival movie set ...would be a great choice for a daytrip from the 'dam ...train station close in ,free parking for drivers, Plein 48 still a great shop, a Top 10 all time for us,an array of colorful characters ,friendly, great layout, roomy ,very interesting stony music , a long indian sitar raga thing was playing as we entered once,bought a preroll and let it carry me away...with Liberty (which-correction- also sells 6 Euro bags)and the Zoo good stops as well ... we stayed a whole weekend and daytripped to Deventer ,which is a much bigger town . CS Maya right on the main square there was a treat ,unfortunately a carnival was filling up that main square (called the Brink) so couldn't really get many pix ....anyway Maya has a sort of Dali/Escher vibe ,Neil Young and Long may you Run playing on entry,Heres one for you to puzzle over- it has the cleanest and the dirtiest bathrooms we encountered maybe ever ... then it was on to Amersfoort,which has a spectacular centrum, but alot of urban sprawl to go with it ...and has some big plans for the future it seems with some of the construction going on ...Gotta thank the Edinburgensians for their review of CS Horizon here on ACD ,as its location can best be described as the ass end of a HEMA store, but they pointed me in the right direction and what they said goes for me too (Come Dancing by the Kinks playing as we entered that one) ... Horizon was my favorite of the Amersfoort shops we found -The TC liked Trenchtown-...everyone in Amersfoort seemed to have a 3 Euro Gruis deal , we stopped at Trenchtown (which is the most central of the Amersfoort shops ) and the TC sees a 5 Gram 15 Euro deal on their Gruis , so she decides to try it. Well the DOD (dude on duty-could also be the dame on duty or damen on duty) runs out of gruis after about half that much and just starts picking buds from the White Widow tub,sweet deal ...Speaking of GOES ,tucked away in this little Zeeland town might have been one of the top 5 shops we visited this year - High Times . They've done something I wish more shops would,or could do ...They have a Grow/Smart Shop on the ground floor,where the Weed/Hash is sold and upstairs is a very spacious, comfy CS ... You can't miss it as you enter the centrum after about a 2 block walk from the Station It's written in HUGE letters ...my only gripe was their ridiculous Internet prices of 1.50 per 15 minutes !! ...Didn't log on there ...Goes was a rainy daytrip from Middelburg ...I think Middelburg is a gorgeous town .It has relatively little urban sprawl,it's modern stuff ,outside the old centrum is very well done to my tastes ,and it has perhaps the coolest little street in the NL in the Kuiperspoort ,which looks like something from a Grimms fairy tale ,and is part of a back alley maze that ends up at the Music college... Its CS scene is OK ,but they could use another one or two ...62 and Roxy are all thats left and this year I preferred Roxy ,roomier,friendlier,after 3 visits we were told we didnt have to pay for our tea/coffees and given a lighter gratis...On Wednesday nights theres a Jazz cafe -Desifinado- that has live music . That week it was a blues night , a bunch of the college profs have formed a very credible and entertaining blues band that plays to a packed house, which ranges from suit/tie 70+ very straight laced Zeelandres to young, jeans and long hair...we noticed almost immediately on arrival in Middelburg that prices on almost everything were lower than we'd seen in previous stops ...that includes such staples as beer and weed ...anyway I think I'll save the story of how we got Busted for Weed in Holland for the next session...
The Best weed award would have to go to Breda , not necessarily the best shops ,but definitely the best weed ...The TC rates the Silver Purl (yeah its spelled that way) from CS Majestic as the best of the Trip ...with some Master Kush from Paradijs as 2nd ...Best Hash award would go to whatever we bought from DC at NES ...Favorite town would have to be Zutphen ...what a gem ...take out the cars and you have a medival movie set ...would be a great choice for a daytrip from the 'dam ...train station close in ,free parking for drivers, Plein 48 still a great shop, a Top 10 all time for us,an array of colorful characters ,friendly, great layout, roomy ,very interesting stony music , a long indian sitar raga thing was playing as we entered once,bought a preroll and let it carry me away...with Liberty (which-correction- also sells 6 Euro bags)and the Zoo good stops as well ... we stayed a whole weekend and daytripped to Deventer ,which is a much bigger town . CS Maya right on the main square there was a treat ,unfortunately a carnival was filling up that main square (called the Brink) so couldn't really get many pix ....anyway Maya has a sort of Dali/Escher vibe ,Neil Young and Long may you Run playing on entry,Heres one for you to puzzle over- it has the cleanest and the dirtiest bathrooms we encountered maybe ever ... then it was on to Amersfoort,which has a spectacular centrum, but alot of urban sprawl to go with it ...and has some big plans for the future it seems with some of the construction going on ...Gotta thank the Edinburgensians for their review of CS Horizon here on ACD ,as its location can best be described as the ass end of a HEMA store, but they pointed me in the right direction and what they said goes for me too (Come Dancing by the Kinks playing as we entered that one) ... Horizon was my favorite of the Amersfoort shops we found -The TC liked Trenchtown-...everyone in Amersfoort seemed to have a 3 Euro Gruis deal , we stopped at Trenchtown (which is the most central of the Amersfoort shops ) and the TC sees a 5 Gram 15 Euro deal on their Gruis , so she decides to try it. Well the DOD (dude on duty-could also be the dame on duty or damen on duty) runs out of gruis after about half that much and just starts picking buds from the White Widow tub,sweet deal ...Speaking of GOES ,tucked away in this little Zeeland town might have been one of the top 5 shops we visited this year - High Times . They've done something I wish more shops would,or could do ...They have a Grow/Smart Shop on the ground floor,where the Weed/Hash is sold and upstairs is a very spacious, comfy CS ... You can't miss it as you enter the centrum after about a 2 block walk from the Station It's written in HUGE letters ...my only gripe was their ridiculous Internet prices of 1.50 per 15 minutes !! ...Didn't log on there ...Goes was a rainy daytrip from Middelburg ...I think Middelburg is a gorgeous town .It has relatively little urban sprawl,it's modern stuff ,outside the old centrum is very well done to my tastes ,and it has perhaps the coolest little street in the NL in the Kuiperspoort ,which looks like something from a Grimms fairy tale ,and is part of a back alley maze that ends up at the Music college... Its CS scene is OK ,but they could use another one or two ...62 and Roxy are all thats left and this year I preferred Roxy ,roomier,friendlier,after 3 visits we were told we didnt have to pay for our tea/coffees and given a lighter gratis...On Wednesday nights theres a Jazz cafe -Desifinado- that has live music . That week it was a blues night , a bunch of the college profs have formed a very credible and entertaining blues band that plays to a packed house, which ranges from suit/tie 70+ very straight laced Zeelandres to young, jeans and long hair...we noticed almost immediately on arrival in Middelburg that prices on almost everything were lower than we'd seen in previous stops ...that includes such staples as beer and weed ...anyway I think I'll save the story of how we got Busted for Weed in Holland for the next session...
A couple of pix...
The victory celebration in Breda after Oranje win over Ivory Coast
The Vespa CS Empire in Haarlem raffled off ...And the Winner was- The girl who worked there
CS Liberty in Zutphen...place filled up as soon as the Voetbal game started...
The victory celebration in Breda after Oranje win over Ivory Coast
The Vespa CS Empire in Haarlem raffled off ...And the Winner was- The girl who worked there
CS Liberty in Zutphen...place filled up as soon as the Voetbal game started...
Last edited by Epsilon on Fri 24th Feb 2012 10:05 am, edited 5 times in total.
The thing with Liberty is that there are TWO rooms that size with equally comfy couches ...we loaded up and left Middelburg for Breda via Zierikzee ..(we have an Anton Pieck of Zierikzee,so we wanted to see it in person ) after a trip over the rather scary Zeeland Brug - not like driving the Afsluitdijk or the Westerscheeld ...but a LONG high narrow bridge that runs maybe 5 KM...and there you are ,and the town still looks like it did as AP envisioned it ... but theres no CS in this small town ...otherwise it may be worth a longer stay ...anyway, into Breda without a hitch ...found Hotel De Klok right on the Grote Markt ,got settled ,had a welcome to town J in the room,put on our Oranje and headed out to get ready for the NL-Ivory Coast Game ...what an electric atmosphere...see pic above-found CS Paradijs first ,the TC was exstatic to see Master Kush on their Menu ...Paradijs is a small ,but friendly place ...if you're going to stay and smoke its either one of the 3-4 stools at the bar ,or the 3 sided couch ,so it brings people together ,and we had some nice chats with the friendly local crew (and thats all we saw in Breda)...so after the victory celebration wound down . It was back to the room for a good night J ...NO sooner had we put it out ,comes a loud pounding on our door ...This rather large red-faced guy says "Nederlands?" we say no English austjeblieft ...He says rather angrily that we cannot smoke pot in this hotel ,and told us twice he'd call the police and kick us out if we try it again ...Yikes. This from the hotel that has ashtrays in the room ( I did request a smoking room) AND is giving away packs of Orange Manciotti rolling papers AT THE CHECK -IN DESK ...with a window that looks out on a roof and some ductwork . NO VIEW of the street whatsoever ...His attitude pissed us off ,but at the time we said OK ...why didn't you say so on the first place ...
(Actually upon further investigation we see NO Soft Drugs in the Hotel rules thingy that we hadn't read yet ...) but still ...How in the world did he know so quickly ? I'm still mystified about that ...Next morning I had a chat with the Manager about the approach he had taken ...pointing out the rolling papers etc. And informing him this is the first hastle we've had in our 6 years of exploring the Country from Bourtange to Valkenburg ... and indeed it was .We've never had an issue in a Hotel where we've had a smoking room ...and was told that roof and ductwork out of our window belongs to the City Hall of Breda ...who have a funky attitude toward things cannibus ...but he agereed a more civilized approach or even a simple phone call would have been a better way to deal with this.
The CS in Breda all have a little brouchure detailing CS rules the city has set fourth ...such as No CS can stay open later than 11 PM...now the city may regulate their CS but the quality in this city is maybe the BEST anywhere in the NL .Yes including AMS , and even our CS fave City Leeuwarden ...The next day we discovered 4 or 5 more shops (thanks Lemming for your Maporama pages ) all with top quality weed ...a quick run down of shops - Majestic -Top weed of trip -Silver Purl - A nice spacious shop nice mural art ...Fly/n/Hy - Spoetnik 5 E bag ...This is a nice shop well decorated,able to seat large groups , de Barones near Majestic ...most comfy shop in Breda with nice padded benches , a friendly DOD ...cool music ...Oranje Pearl 5 E ...The only shop I didn't like in this town would be Purple Rain out by the Station the DOD (a dame) was thoroughly uninvolved -not just with us but with everyone it seemed ...the music got a minus (don't like most current rap , or adoloescent music ,which is what they seemed to specialize in) . Breda is doing lots of construction this year ...the canal by the Spanairds Wall was totally drainned and in the process of being ,well I guess rebuilt or whatever they do to canals ...which kind of cut the town in two ...the city park seemed to have a life of its own ,with people playing Voetbal, playing Guitars ,just sort of having a nice time ... We stumbled on a Battle of the Bands sort of event in the centrum one day ...lots of young bands playing 4 or 5 songs ...it was sort of cute to see their parents drinking beers and smoking and cheering while their kid played ...some of the bands were quite tight ,and well arranged ...another one of those things that ,if it happened in the US, would certainly not include alchohol as many of the kids were obviously what we would call underage ...and the venue was a large bar with a nice stage ...Breda was showing us a nice sense of community . Next into Germany and finishing up in Haarlem
(Actually upon further investigation we see NO Soft Drugs in the Hotel rules thingy that we hadn't read yet ...) but still ...How in the world did he know so quickly ? I'm still mystified about that ...Next morning I had a chat with the Manager about the approach he had taken ...pointing out the rolling papers etc. And informing him this is the first hastle we've had in our 6 years of exploring the Country from Bourtange to Valkenburg ... and indeed it was .We've never had an issue in a Hotel where we've had a smoking room ...and was told that roof and ductwork out of our window belongs to the City Hall of Breda ...who have a funky attitude toward things cannibus ...but he agereed a more civilized approach or even a simple phone call would have been a better way to deal with this.
The CS in Breda all have a little brouchure detailing CS rules the city has set fourth ...such as No CS can stay open later than 11 PM...now the city may regulate their CS but the quality in this city is maybe the BEST anywhere in the NL .Yes including AMS , and even our CS fave City Leeuwarden ...The next day we discovered 4 or 5 more shops (thanks Lemming for your Maporama pages ) all with top quality weed ...a quick run down of shops - Majestic -Top weed of trip -Silver Purl - A nice spacious shop nice mural art ...Fly/n/Hy - Spoetnik 5 E bag ...This is a nice shop well decorated,able to seat large groups , de Barones near Majestic ...most comfy shop in Breda with nice padded benches , a friendly DOD ...cool music ...Oranje Pearl 5 E ...The only shop I didn't like in this town would be Purple Rain out by the Station the DOD (a dame) was thoroughly uninvolved -not just with us but with everyone it seemed ...the music got a minus (don't like most current rap , or adoloescent music ,which is what they seemed to specialize in) . Breda is doing lots of construction this year ...the canal by the Spanairds Wall was totally drainned and in the process of being ,well I guess rebuilt or whatever they do to canals ...which kind of cut the town in two ...the city park seemed to have a life of its own ,with people playing Voetbal, playing Guitars ,just sort of having a nice time ... We stumbled on a Battle of the Bands sort of event in the centrum one day ...lots of young bands playing 4 or 5 songs ...it was sort of cute to see their parents drinking beers and smoking and cheering while their kid played ...some of the bands were quite tight ,and well arranged ...another one of those things that ,if it happened in the US, would certainly not include alchohol as many of the kids were obviously what we would call underage ...and the venue was a large bar with a nice stage ...Breda was showing us a nice sense of community . Next into Germany and finishing up in Haarlem
After a couple days in Germany it was off to Haarlem for the Final NL stop
It was rainy and cool as we pulled into Hotel Carillon ,right on the Grote Markt ...We were anxious to make the most of our last days so we headed to Empire first which was friendly , and quiet . The Vespa was the center of Attention as it was to be raffled that day ...they sell in 6/12 Euro bags got a nice Crystal White , chilled for a while and headed for Indica ...A nice face lift for the place with a musical instrument theme . The DOD was one of the cooler we encountered . Got a 2.60 pre-roll ,while de Vrouw worked on her Crystal White ...This was the night of the Argentina /NL game...think it was a 9 PM local time start ...there wasn't the scene we saw in Breda ,the weather kinda contributed to that ,but the pubs and coffeeshops were packed . By the way if any of you should stay at Carillon theres a brand new ,onyx ( I think) hash pipe stuffed behind the "Archeon" Pamphlets in their tourist brouchure stand on the first floor landing just up from the Cafe0-the 2nd level down Archeon Pamphlets - ...I gave a slightly used one to a guy at CS Maximillain our last night and he seemed quite happy to get it ...anyway ,we visited Sativa a couple of times,trying JAck Herrer, NYCDiesel and Juicy Power ...the NYCD being the best of the lot (and also the priciest at 11 E)...Sativa remains a top shop , the staff being patient and professional with obvious CS Neophytes and able to discuss the subtelties of their product with more experienced tokers (or at least CS visitors)...went by the Theehuis on numerous occasions ,but never ventured in. They have redone the already tiny shop ,and made it seem almost unwelcoming ...gone are the few wicker chairs that WERE comfy ,no sign of the large stack of Mags/Comix /their version of our Book ...just didn't look like a nice stop anymore ...Stumbled upon the afore mentioned Maximillian ...a cozy locals shop ,de Vrouw thought it a bit grimy ,with dirty tables ...DOD
friendly enough told us computer there for customers to use free of charge ,so I bought a pre-roll ...which was one of the more potent I sampled ,and logged on for a few ...turned out to be my last CS stop
(de Vrouw made a last minute morning dash to Sativa the day of our departure ....)
...anyway a few thoughts on Haarlem .The work they'd been doing around St Bavo is far from complete but they are making progress ,and its opened up that part of town again...theres an interesting motif with the new and the old co-existing there now,and it could be something special when its done ...the Vischandel bar was my last stop as I heard the unmistakable sound of live jazz coming from within ...stayed for a couple beers ,its a nice place ...also watched the first half of ARG/NL there ...amazing NO ONE was talking during that 1st half ...those Oranje fans are great fans ...kinda remind me of our own Mountaineer fans ...Will wrap up the trip with top ten lists in a bit ...
It was rainy and cool as we pulled into Hotel Carillon ,right on the Grote Markt ...We were anxious to make the most of our last days so we headed to Empire first which was friendly , and quiet . The Vespa was the center of Attention as it was to be raffled that day ...they sell in 6/12 Euro bags got a nice Crystal White , chilled for a while and headed for Indica ...A nice face lift for the place with a musical instrument theme . The DOD was one of the cooler we encountered . Got a 2.60 pre-roll ,while de Vrouw worked on her Crystal White ...This was the night of the Argentina /NL game...think it was a 9 PM local time start ...there wasn't the scene we saw in Breda ,the weather kinda contributed to that ,but the pubs and coffeeshops were packed . By the way if any of you should stay at Carillon theres a brand new ,onyx ( I think) hash pipe stuffed behind the "Archeon" Pamphlets in their tourist brouchure stand on the first floor landing just up from the Cafe0-the 2nd level down Archeon Pamphlets - ...I gave a slightly used one to a guy at CS Maximillain our last night and he seemed quite happy to get it ...anyway ,we visited Sativa a couple of times,trying JAck Herrer, NYCDiesel and Juicy Power ...the NYCD being the best of the lot (and also the priciest at 11 E)...Sativa remains a top shop , the staff being patient and professional with obvious CS Neophytes and able to discuss the subtelties of their product with more experienced tokers (or at least CS visitors)...went by the Theehuis on numerous occasions ,but never ventured in. They have redone the already tiny shop ,and made it seem almost unwelcoming ...gone are the few wicker chairs that WERE comfy ,no sign of the large stack of Mags/Comix /their version of our Book ...just didn't look like a nice stop anymore ...Stumbled upon the afore mentioned Maximillian ...a cozy locals shop ,de Vrouw thought it a bit grimy ,with dirty tables ...DOD
friendly enough told us computer there for customers to use free of charge ,so I bought a pre-roll ...which was one of the more potent I sampled ,and logged on for a few ...turned out to be my last CS stop
(de Vrouw made a last minute morning dash to Sativa the day of our departure ....)
...anyway a few thoughts on Haarlem .The work they'd been doing around St Bavo is far from complete but they are making progress ,and its opened up that part of town again...theres an interesting motif with the new and the old co-existing there now,and it could be something special when its done ...the Vischandel bar was my last stop as I heard the unmistakable sound of live jazz coming from within ...stayed for a couple beers ,its a nice place ...also watched the first half of ARG/NL there ...amazing NO ONE was talking during that 1st half ...those Oranje fans are great fans ...kinda remind me of our own Mountaineer fans ...Will wrap up the trip with top ten lists in a bit ...
...the top ten shops would be ...In Amsterdam- De Graal, NES and Basjoes
De Grall - because of its sheer comfort , the music room very cool ,friendliness...Nes seems the best of the CS Bars ,Best Hash of trip, and of course our own DC ...
Basjoe - James/Joe is a cool DOD, comfortable ,calm
de Graal
Basjoe
Zutphen- Plein 48
In Haarlem Sativa, Indica-great product, staff in both
In Middelburg- Roxy-
Roxy
Paradijs in Breda - Friendly & Master Kush
Maya in Deventer-Wacky sort of ambience,Friendliness,Location
High Life in Goes - Nice set up ,atmosphere
coolest town not named Amsterdam- Zutphen
Best Smokes -Silver Pearl- CS Majestic,Breda. close 2nd Master Kush, Paradijs,Breda... Honourable mention going to Nevilles Haze de Kuil , NYCD -Sativa, Twisla Hash -Roxy, Pre-Roll Hash Joint- Basjoe, Early Pearl
Basjoe, Orange Pearl de Baron-Breda ...
But I must confess that from the first toke of Arabicas cheapy Gruis until my last pre-roll from Maximillian I was Ripped on everything we tried ....Best Music - Plein 48,De Kuil,62 (Middelburg) -were on an old Blue Note roll one afternoon,Maya-Deventer -classic rock
A few closing thoughts -
Even though we didn't go to Fryslan this year (1st time since 00) I'm still convinced that Leeuwarden has the best CS Scene for a city its size. Bredas shops had the best weed we sampled this year ,but the shops themselves aren't as nice as Leeuwardens, nor does the city seem as open to such things ... But if I was single and looking -I think I'd pick Breda ...Haarlem has the craziest bikers , more than half the cops in NL are babes ...Holland is the only place I've ever been where the cashiers expect the customers to make change ...Pure Hash joints are good...Best rest area to stop for a joint off an NL highway -Between Eindhoven and Venlo A67 Eastbound...a real forest... and this I could live on
De Grall - because of its sheer comfort , the music room very cool ,friendliness...Nes seems the best of the CS Bars ,Best Hash of trip, and of course our own DC ...
Basjoe - James/Joe is a cool DOD, comfortable ,calm
de Graal
Basjoe
Zutphen- Plein 48
In Haarlem Sativa, Indica-great product, staff in both
In Middelburg- Roxy-
Roxy
Paradijs in Breda - Friendly & Master Kush
Maya in Deventer-Wacky sort of ambience,Friendliness,Location
High Life in Goes - Nice set up ,atmosphere
coolest town not named Amsterdam- Zutphen
Best Smokes -Silver Pearl- CS Majestic,Breda. close 2nd Master Kush, Paradijs,Breda... Honourable mention going to Nevilles Haze de Kuil , NYCD -Sativa, Twisla Hash -Roxy, Pre-Roll Hash Joint- Basjoe, Early Pearl
Basjoe, Orange Pearl de Baron-Breda ...
But I must confess that from the first toke of Arabicas cheapy Gruis until my last pre-roll from Maximillian I was Ripped on everything we tried ....Best Music - Plein 48,De Kuil,62 (Middelburg) -were on an old Blue Note roll one afternoon,Maya-Deventer -classic rock
A few closing thoughts -
Even though we didn't go to Fryslan this year (1st time since 00) I'm still convinced that Leeuwarden has the best CS Scene for a city its size. Bredas shops had the best weed we sampled this year ,but the shops themselves aren't as nice as Leeuwardens, nor does the city seem as open to such things ... But if I was single and looking -I think I'd pick Breda ...Haarlem has the craziest bikers , more than half the cops in NL are babes ...Holland is the only place I've ever been where the cashiers expect the customers to make change ...Pure Hash joints are good...Best rest area to stop for a joint off an NL highway -Between Eindhoven and Venlo A67 Eastbound...a real forest... and this I could live on
Last edited by Epsilon on Fri 24th Feb 2012 10:10 am, edited 2 times in total.
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