Months late as usual. I've been busy for ages on the new site but now that's working reasonably well I thought I'd take a break to finish this off. To be honest, the best pictures were on the 20th but here's the 21st anyway.
Day 3 - Thursday 21st April 2016
I arrive at Voyagers to meet everyone for a planned excursion to Haarlem. Papi and JDog are there but no sign of Macky yet. Settling in for a smoke up while we wait for the others, I discover that Papi and JDog are not planning on going to Haarlem anyway.
Occasional Bowl strolls in and joins us but, after a while, it's become clear that nobody else is coming. [Later we learn that Mr & Mrs Macky and Drugsbunny had actually already gone to Haarlem.]
Voyagers - those unusable Volcanoes - what a waste! (see day 1)
Occasional Bowl and I discuss whether it's worth just the two of us going to Haarlem or whether we should do something else. It's a lovely sunny day, perfect for a walk. OB has a smart phone with the ACD Google Map on it so I ask him whether he fancies a coffeeshop-spotting expedition. I suggest we could head out to the new Baba. He agrees so a mission is born. We're off out west.
Camera slung around neck, I snap away at every passing coffeeshop. [Rather than posting all of those pictures here I'll put them on the coffeeshop pages soon.] We pass Central and Batavia, cross all of the tramlines and come to where the derelict remains of Rastababy face the also empty Rokerij 2.
OB and I get chatting about the mess left by closed coffeeshops. Warmoesstraat looks particularly wrecked at the moment, especially where the empty shells of Baba and Stones Corner face one another across the busiest junction in touristville. They, of course, closed quite recently so maybe new businesses will move in there but Rastababy and Rokerij have been closed for a while now and there is no sign of anyone rushing to do anything with these buildings.
OB points out that the plans to gentrify the Red Light District were made before the banking crash when tourism was thriving. With visitor numbers falling I wonder whether the tourist board is now regretting closing so many tourist coffeeshops.
Anyway, there are still several open coffeeshops around here. I get pictures of Bulldog Rockshop and The Store. The nameplate above The Store looks very plain, as befits its new name, which seems so bland to me compared to The Doors. No idea why they changed it.
On to the Brouwersgracht, where the water is looking rather brown today. OB suggests that we pop into Siberie. So, in we go, grab a gram and a drink and then sit down at a high table near the door to skin up.
Siberie menu
OB uses his phone to post an update onto the forum. He tells everyone that the Haarlem trip has been abandoned because nobody turned up, what we are doing instead and planned meets for later in the day.
It's always nice to hang out in Siberie but today we are on a mission. I seem to finish up smoking most of the joint I rolled myself but it's all gone now and we set off again. Across onto Haarlemmerstraat, where I photograph every coffeeshop we pass, then a right turn onto Korte Prinsengracht, under the railway and we emerge into the Westerdok area.
This is actually one photo of one window. I'd love to know the story behind this stuffed cat and live cat.
Arriving at Baba I take some photos but neither of us are that bothered about going in. We're already nicely stoned and the sun is shining so we decide to walk on. I mention to OB that The Wauw Shop is quite close and that I'd like to see if it's still open so we head off there.
We find that The Wauw Shop is indeed still open, although not at this moment. It's on the outside school hours rules of opening at 6pm on weekdays. It's good to finally see this threatened coffeeshop. It's always struck me as slightly bizarre for a coffeeshop to appear to be an annexe of an Albert Heijn supermarket and the reality doesn't disappoint.
The Wauw Shop and Albert Heijn
Next we take a look at Yin Yang, the shop formerly known as Heavenly just around the corner from Wauw. Again I take lots of photos but we don't stop.
There's not much else to see around here so we make our way back under the railway towards another cluster of coffeeshops.
Fishing in my pocket I find the medicated rice krispie cake that Drugbunny gave me (see day 1) and begin munching my way through it as we stroll down the road.
The map on OB's phone has stopped working so we have to try to find our way around from memory. We find De Republiek quite easily but then begin to struggle.
Wandering around in a stoned daze we next stumble across the remains of closed shop Londen. We also find coffeeshop Freedom without too much difficulty.
That just leaves Chapiteau to find. OB has been there before but can't quite remember which street it's on. I'm now flying on rice krispie cake and no help at all. Eventually OB triumphantly finds it.
So that's mission accomplished. Lots of coffeeshop photos in the can after a very pleasant walk in the sunshine in excellent company. We part ways at Marnixstraat as OB heads back to his hotel and on to Utopia for his 8 o'clock meet up. I carry on back into the centre.
Back at the apartment I post on the forum that I'll pop into Baba after 6 when it opens but that I can't stay until 8 because I've got to meet my girlfriend at the station before then. [It's only ages later that I realise I typed Baba when I meant Utopia. That's how stoned I am.
]
A little later and here I am in Utopia with Gapie, Smirks, Trashcanman, JDog, Papi and Drugsbunny. Just long enough to get even more mashed and then it's off down to Centraal Station to meet the other half, herein known as J, who's just flown in to join me.
While I'm waiting I attempt to get that classic arrival view of Amsterdam
J and I go out for dinner and then finish the night at Batavia. Yet another wonderful day in Amsterdam.
. What a pity Elasticband doesn't report on here anymore due to some bad undeserved childishness of others(of course always blaming others!)especially since he had a growing background and was dedicated, hope you're fine and come back one day 
but the sun is shining and we still have time to get a nice breakfast. 
