Travel Talk BK
22 March 2019 (21 Feb 2018)
Amsterdam and Haarlem, NL
Part 2 – from HAARLEM to AMSTERDAM
BK Haarlem, 18 Feb 2019
Travel Talk BK: Travelling with Millenials
Having to be a single mother when that was not my original intention clipped my wings, I’ll make no bones about it. It gave me other wings, more important ones — but the travel writer’s wings were broken and in a dull and sorry plumage.Now my other wings are carrying me, two adventurous daughters. And it was the youngest last month who, along with S. my cousin, led me through sex-positive Amsterdam: http://www.sexpositiveworld.com/chapters/amsterdam-netherlands/
We caught the train from Haarlem Centraal. For those who want to stay somewhere beautiful, quiet, quaint and free of tourists, only a short and inexpensive trip from Amsterdam Central Station, I would recommend Haarlem.
There is a glorious towering cathedral and square with bargain weekend markets for fabulous handbags and whacky, super-trendy Dutch fashion, from stripy rainbow-colored cotton trousers to fake fur stoles. Trains seem to run every 10 mins and get you there in 20.
We met S. by the grand piano in the amazing and gigantic Amsterdam Central station, and walked through the free corridor to the banks of the Ij. There we caught a free ferry to the Eye, a huge and splendid Film Institute and Art Gallery. www.eyefilm.nl
After the Eye we went to have a smoke in a coffeeshop called Amsterdammed near Haarlemmerstraat, going right (west) after you leave Central Station.
I can’t remember the name of the weed we bought to share among the 4 of us, because I was just happy to enjoy the comic poetry of the menu on the counter while the smoker experts among us discussed the niceties.
I ordered a strawberry juice and I think E had pineapple. Even though the ready-made joint we bought had tobacco in it, you are not allowed to smoke cigarettes with tobacco in the coffeeshop. Nor is alcohol sold.
After we finished our drinks we went for a walk to look for somewhere to have a spot of lunch. What was quite interesting was, walking further west past the Popeye coffeeshop on the left we found a weird shop on the right which sold cannabis accessories. I bought a little transparent cone thing made of plastic with a red lid for keeping Js in, so they don’t stink up your drawer or handbag, and then browsed with Sam.
They sold cannabis chocolate bars with very appealing packaging. And it said it was “allowed for export” … this means it doesn’t have THC (which I still call TLC in my head) in it, Sam speculated, which is why it’s allowed.
Maybe it has the same beneficial properties as cannabis without the TLC I mused, like its anti-depressant qualities. After all, my mum, a trained nurse and sister, had bought me cannabis anti-depressants drops from England’s health food shop, Holland and Barrett, and I think they worked, after about 4 or 5 weeks it must be said (although it may have been my fault as I didn’t take them as often as instructed) …
Part 3 will be due at the end of April.
