Making my way down Warmoesstraat, stopping in to pick up a take away coffee in some American Diner halfway down, I kept an eye open for that creepy little bastard I run into the day before – not to be seen, so I had a more peaceful slower walk this morning down to Dam Square and completing a full circle eventually back towards the Coin (knowing I had to check out the hotel by 11).
On the visit to the Coin, I was served by the same Australian barman as my last trip new years eve – very friendly guy, who said was leaving in the summer to continue travelling. It will be a shame when he goes as it makes for a more friendly experience with his presence; but I wish him the best in the future. I also got talking to a local guy who said he visits the shop most mornings – another very friendly guy whom I got talking about a lot of interesting subjects (it was the day after the referendum too) as well as playing a F1 racing tournament on his mobile phone along with the barman and shop owner, who was also sitting at the bar. All in all a most cheerful morning with all the others making me feel most welcome – it really topped off an amazing trip so far, so much so already that I wasn’t even that disappointed about leaving the same day.
At 11am, I quickly went a couple of doors down to the hotel – still having to drag my friend out of bed in order to check out – before making it back to the Coin for a final smoke with my newly made friends. Shortly after 12 I bid my final farewell to the Coin and the pleasant company it plays host to, and we were walking towards the Centraal Station in order to leave our luggage in the lockers for a more free moving concluding hours in the city. Only to find out that the change machine was out of order and the guy behind the desk (who must have had many others like me as he was in no mood for niceties) was not giving change out either – not having €5,70 in loose coins between us, our bags accompanied us to our last destinations.
Next stop would be a final visit to Pink Floyd – seeing Richard behind the bar again was great as he always remembers us and engages in a most social conversation. Having ordered a coffee we sat downstairs by the tv at the back to start work on finishing a collection of half smoked bags of weed. About half hour must have passed when I saw a light flash on the wall followed by 2 large policemen frog marching into the bag of the shop with some intention – looking immediately under the tables (WTF?) Ok…….so that’s one way of snapping me out of my pleasant state of mind, as I turned my head only to notice several other policemen at the front of the shop shouting instructions in Dutch – along with a table of other freaked out tourists. Obviously picking up the nervous vibe, one (very tall) young cop asked us, along with the other table, if we were English – only to then inform us that we had done nothing wrong, calmingly asked to see our passports and to then follow his colleague out the door with the parting words “Don’t forget your weed” – hahaha never thinking those words would come from a policeman. I still don’t know what happened here, but on the way out, Richard behind the bar was seemingly in the same high spirits he always is and shook our hands upon exit (I guess he didn’t see there was a problem). Although the experience was very freaky, the Dutch police I felt did calm the situation and communicated with us in a most friendly manner.
Having our Pink Floyd visit prematurely end, it was down to Amnesia as this was a place I had wanted to return since our fly-in visit few days ago. Lucky for us we managed to grab the last two comfy seats along the wall and sat down with a milkshake in hand – I did get a gram of Amnesia Haze on this occasion and although was not disappointed, I really felt as though the Canadian Crown purchased last time held better value for money.
Breaking this holidays tradition of a new coffeeshop per day, I did manage to make another first of some kind – I had still kept to within my spending budget and still had a few notes to show for it on my last day!!! Never being one for saving for tomorrow, I had another RLD vision…not just the one through the window across the road! So I left my bag with my buddy and went for a couple of laps around the Singel district – was surprised to see how many ladies were working on Spuistraat this time of day, almost all the windows were occupied – a couple of real stunners too. But I was too tempted but another look around the main RLD so headed in that direction – funnily enough on route I saw another police van with several coppers inside Teasers on Damrak ushering people outside in the same manner as we were earlier (weird?!?).
Making a walk round the RLD for the last time this trip I took a thought at what it may look like next time I am here – hoping it never loses the illustrious character that seems to be contained over two distinct canals. Slowly moving through the busy area around Sexy Land I was immediately attracted to girl, very pretty face and perfect body. After a quick conversation I knew she had an alluring personality, so paid for double time (said I was no good as saving money) and was ever so grateful I did – an extremely delightful girl from Hungary and easy to talk to (found out we shared a like for some heavy metal bands – how cool). By far the best RLD experience in the few I had and I left on cloud nine.
Back to Amnesia and shared a few bowls with 3 Americans who were seated next to us, a shame we didn’t have longer but I was almost counting down the last hour to the train – reminiscing on what had been an almost perfect 4 days, although there is still some shops that were not crossed off on my list I really could not have wanted the trip to have happened any different than it did. So on this occasion I could say it was not disappointing to go home, as I was already mentally thinking of when I would next be walking these cobbled streets (not too long I hope).
Starting the report with song lyrics got me thinking on the journey home too – and these ones really did come to me on my mp3 player…I hoped they could fit in somewhere
“Have you ever felt the future is the past, but you don't know how?
A reflected dream of a captured time, is it really now, is it really happening?
The dream is true, the dream is true”
Iron Maiden – Dream of Mirrors
