Yesterday, we decided to take things very easy.  Neither Bill nor I felt much like going back to Amsterdam, though we didn’t get to see much of the city.  I hope we’ll have another chance to visit before we leave Germany and I’ll be more in the mood to look around and see more than the Red Light district, sex shops, and coffee shops.  It’s a great city and there’s a lot to see and do there.

Bill enjoys coffee…

Sunday morning in Haarlem was very peaceful and quiet.  After breakfast, we took a walk over by the Basilica and watched people play with their dogs.  I saw one mom ride her bike past us with one child sitting on the handlebars and one standing up behind her.  None of them were wearing helmets, which I thought was kind of refreshing.  It’s the kind of thing my generation did.  Of course, if I were a mom, maybe I’d be horrified at the lack of safety consciousness.  I think I was just enjoying being in a really cute town in another country.

The basilica…

Electric cars are all the rage…  This is a Tesla.

I was tempted to go in here…

At about noon, we went to the Napoli Restaurant, which was very close to our hotel.  It was a really nice place for lunch.  We had a table right by the window, so I could people watch while we waited for our food.  Napoli has a pretty extensive menu and it was hard to choose a dish.  I ended up with cannelloni served Bolognese style.  Bill had ravioli made with truffles.  We started with a shared salad and finished with a piece of tiramisu and a “shake” made with lemon ice cream, vodka, and prosecco.  One thing that was really cool about this restaurant is that a lot of stuff is done table side.  We watched the waiter mix pasta in a giant wheel of cheese for the people next to us.  We watched him make my dessert, too.

Montepulciano for lunch…

Salad dressed tableside.

Cannelloni and ravioli…

The makings of my dessert.

Finished product…  the tiramisu was killer!

We picked up two more space cakes from a different guy at Willie Wortel’s Sinsemilla cannabis shop.  He was a lot crankier than the first guy was, but we were emboldened.  I noticed a whole lot of young folks in there smoking and watching car racing on TV.  The air was thick with pot smoke and we had to get out of there quickly.

We went back to the hotel because Bill had some school work to do.  I ate a second cake and basically spent the day relaxing.  The second space cake wasn’t all that powerful and did nothing but make me doze.

But after awhile, I was ready to scarf down a steak and fries.  I think it’s safe to say that marijuana makes me want to eat… even more than I regularly do.