We had a long lunch in Westerpark with a couple of beers each. It was nice to catch up with Craig. We each had a variety of club sandwich which was tasty and filling. Then back to the apartment for a nap before making our way into the centre of town.

Actually the nap was a couple of hours so it was after 7 before we ventured out. We found a nice cafe in a square not far from the Cathedral and had some good meals at a reasonable price. Sole fillets for me, steak for Mike and chicken for Craig. All meals came with salad and fries which was served separately in shared bowls. Everything seems to come with fries and mayonnaise.

We had a table outside and watched the world go past for a couple of hours before walking home in what turned out to be both a direct and rapid route!

Craig’s girlfriend had suggested a place for brunch so we have booked that for the morning at 11.15. It’s about a half hour walk so we will be ready for food when we get there.

Easter Sunday

In the end we decided to get the bus and then tram. We bought the ticket on the bus and squeezed on. It was very hazy outside and a lady on the bus said it was the Easter fires mainly from Germany. She wasn’t impressed. I think they burn these wooden bonfires in what must be a combination of post harvest crop burning and symbolic Christian ascension. All very environmentally unfriendly anyway.

We got 48 hour passes at the central station and that does metro, tram and bus. Craig has this great public transport app which I must download. it tells you exactly what to do and where to go.

We caught a tram then had a walk and got to Zoku Restaurant right on time. It is the rooftop cafe of this hotel at the top of a high rise 6 storey) building. It’s all very zen with glass and gardens and hammocks.

Rather lovely actually. We sat out on the terrace in the sunshine, in this echo friendly cafe. You order from the screens on the wall. They have a choice of 4 mains and you help yourself to cold meats, salad, cheeses, spreads and bread (always bread) while you wait. You pay on screen when you order your main and goodness knows how they work out what’s yours. Maybe there was a place where we should have entered a table name but we saw neither the place nor name. Eventually someone came out with 3 meals that looked like ours so we claimed them. Considering it was fully booked it was remarkably not busy. We had an order snaffoo in that both Craig and Mike wanted the poached egg with salmon (which was called the fish dish) and I want d the fried eggs and mushrooms but everyone said they wanted the eggs so that’s what we ordered and all got fried eggs. We then had menu envy. The egged came with cheese on toast and a few funny mushrooms. Quite tasty but lots of bread. The juices were yum and we got ourselves coffee and tea from the machine. Quite a different experience but very enjoyable all the same.

After Zoku we caught the metro back to the station and got ourselves tickets on an open boat tour. Craig bought himself a hat and the boat captain had sunscreen fortunately. We thoroughly enjoyed the tour.

It was about 95 minutes and wound all through these narrow and large canals as well as down the Amstel River. Some of the bridges were very low and we barely squeezed through.

Our captain was pretty good. A bit predictable with his humour but provided some interesting history and commentary.

We could have done without the screaming baby (for goodness sake what did they expect. The mother was explaining how the one year old was tired when he was whinging before we even set off).

After the tour we found a canal-side bar and had beer and some snacks. We ordered sides of grilled veggies and humus and some cheese and pickles and were a bit taken aback when it came out topping 4 slices of toast. There’s a theme here.

We headed back to the apartment in time to enjoy the sunset on the rooftop with the last of the rose. That’s when we decided that being in Amsterdam we would have the full ‘experience’. Craig located what looked like a pleasant enough coffee shop just over the canal and off we set to rediscover former misspent hours. Well actually both Mike and I said we had never really felt the effects of weed in our youth and found it all a bit of a waste of time. Obviously we hadn’t tried Dutch weed.

The coffee shop was empty when we arrived and Craig got us a not too strong (but not learner) joint to share. We also ordered coffee which was excellent. We learned 3 things:

– like Bill Clinton I need to learn how to inhale;

– Every fibre in Mike’s body will resist the urge to get stoned. The net result is immediately flaking out on the couch and then feeling extremely unwell;

– Mike and I need to stay in the population of the permanently ‘unstoned’.

Once Craig and I were certain that he wasn’t having a heart attack (not before making a feeble attempt at CPR) we waited it out until we could get him out in the fresh air. Somehow we managed to get home and back upstairs and Mike was straight to bed. Craig and I listened to some music, he had some food and we reflected that it was quite a night for 5€!